Rashida Jones has been a part of “Parks And Recreation” since day one, and now, sadly, she’s made the decision to take a new path.
Jones–who had experience with the documentary-style setting from her days on “The Office”–is leaving in the middle of the upcoming season, and Rob Lowe is going with her. Since their characters decided to have a baby together in season 5, there’s a natural opening for them to go (but that doesn’t make it hurt any less for us fans!).
“The news about Rob and Rashida is true — they will be leaving the show after the 13th episode of the upcoming season 6,” executive producer Mike Schur said in a statement. “We’ve been working on their storyline (on and off) for four seasons now, and heading into this year, with the two of them contemplating parenthood, it felt like a natural time to move them into the next phase. We absolutely love both Rashida and Rob, and will be sad to see them go. Rashida was one of the very first people we knew we wanted in the cast, and as important as Ann is to [Amy Poehler’s] Leslie (and vice-versa), she’ll certainly never be far from Pawnee,” he said. “Rob we initially thought we could only have for six or eight episodes, and we couldn’t be happier that he will have stuck around for 75. They are wonderful, funny, committed actors, they’ve been a huge part of the Parks and Rec family, and we think we have a great Pawnee send-off in the works for them.”
Jones hasn’t commented on her departure yet, but she will be sadly missed, as will Rob. I’m literally going to go cry over a plate of bacon now.