Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara Leave Mythbusters

In news that is sure to upset fans of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters, show hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage announced last week that Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara will not be r...
Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara Leave Mythbusters
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  • In news that is sure to upset fans of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters, show hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage announced last week that Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara will not be returning for the show’s next season.

    Known as the “build team,” Byron, Belleci, and Imahara began appearing on Mythbusters during the show’s second and third seasons. The trio worked separately from Hyneman and Savage, providing the show with a second team with which to test myths.

    Their departure was announced at the end of last week’s episode. During the message, Hyneman stated that Mythbusters will be “going back to [its] origins” and that the next season of the show will feature only himself and Savage.

    Belleci had worked with Hyneman’s M5 Industries shop in the mid-90s before moving on to Industrial Light and Magic, where he worked as a model maker for movies such as Peter Pan, Starship Troopers, and Galaxy Quest. He re-joined Hyneman in 2003 to work on Mythbusters and joined the show on-screen in 2004.

    Among other things, Belleci is best-known to Mythbusters fans for putting himself at risk for the show, doing things such as entering a bullfighting ring while wearing a red suit or trying (unsuccessfully) to jump a wagon on a bicycle:

    Imahara also worked at Industrial Light and Magic as a visual effects engineer before joining Mythbusters in 2005. He is best-known on the show for building robots and other electronic contraptions needed for experiments.

    Byron graduated from San Francisco State University in 1998 and pursued art before joining Mythbusters in 2004.

    The build team reacted to the announcement on social media, thanking fans and praising their decade-long dream jobs with Mythbusters:

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