Coming on the heels of the most shocking season finale from Dexter comes yet another unexpected news: Clyde Phillips is leaving the acclaimed Showtime series he spearheaded since 2006! According to The Hollywood Reporter, the man behind Dexter is leaving to spend more time with his family in Connecticut.

“I lived with the people on the show for four years that were the high point of my career,” Phillips says of his extremely difficult decision to leave Dexter.  

“But I was missing out on my family. I need to be part of my own life, immerse into my own life,” explains Phillip, who, for the past four years, would spent nine months in Los Angeles where Dexter is being filmed and three months with his wife and daughter.

At least Clyde Phillips left on a very high note. Dexter‘s fourth season ender, which also marked the last episode of the showrunner, earned record-breaking ratings for the network with a whopping 2.6 million audience. Under Phillips’ watch, Dexter also earned two straight best drama Emmy nominations and won a Peabody Award in 2007.

As a replacement for Phillips, 24 co-executive producer Chip Johannessen has been tapped to take over Dexter, which is reportedly in the middle of a two-season pickup.

“Clyde Phillips has made an enormous contribution to the phenomenal success of Dexter for the past four years, but we know he needs to spend more time with his family on the East Coast than he spends with the Dexter family in L.A.,” Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt said. “We reluctantly say good-bye to him at a turning point in the series, but fellow Dexter executive producers Sara Colleton and John Goldwyn have chosen a great successor — Chip Johannessen, who has been a key producer of 24 for the past two years. We’re confident that he will bring intelligence, emotion and great storytelling to the next chapter of Dexter.”

(Image courtesy of Getty)

Kris De Leon

Staff Writer, BuddyTV