Nina Tassler talks about Criminal Minds cast change at the TCA

From TheFutonCritic

-- And lastly, in regards to cutting A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster back on "Criminal Minds," Tassler said, "I wouldn't say it was just budget reasons. And I would say that over the past couple of years, you know, many shows take a look at adjusting their casts, their cast members, you know, sometimes for financial reasons. Other times, and in this case what it's about, which was we were developing a spin-off. And when we had 'Suspect Behavior' we looked at sort of the evolution of the franchise, we looked at what this vision of the FBI, how they actually did their jobs, what were the nature of the characters being introduced in the sequel and that did give us an opportunity to reflect back on the desired structure of the team on 'Criminal Minds.'

So there were some discussions about, you know, what role did A.J. play, what role does Paget play, is there an opportunity here with the spin-off to look back at the original show and say how can we build out that brand, how can we, we can evolve so that the roles of the agents in the original show? We hope Paget stays with the show, she has the option to stay there, we would like for her to continue on the show but I can tell you that across the board there are discussions about cast members changing [on every show]. It happens more often than necessarily is shared by the press but it is the nature of the evolution of any show.

From Deadline

On the decision to drop A.J. Cook from Criminal Minds. Tassler said it came out of the discussion related to the development of the show's upcoming spinoff. "We though, 'is there an opportunity with the sipnoff to evolve some of the roles (on the mothership series)?'." On Paget Brewster, whose episode commitment was reduced this season and whose future on the show is uncertain: "We'd hope that she would stay, she has the option to do so."