The Carey Lowell departure from Law & Order came after two seasons as Assistant District Attorney Jamie Ross. Lowell left the NBC drama in 1998 so she could spend more time with her young daughter, she told the Television Academy.
Lowell joined the show in Season 7, in 1996, replacing Jill Hennessy’s Claire Kincaid, who died in a car crash. The Carey Lowell departure took effect after Season 8.
Carey Lowell departure: what she said
Lowell said she still wonders how things might have gone. “I sometimes think about what would have been,” she said, according to TVLine. “I could have managed it. But I also felt like my daughter took priority, and I needed to be there for her.”
She added that having someone at home to handle meals, shopping and childcare might have let her stay. “But it just wasn’t meant to be,” she said.
Jamie Ross returns to Law & Order
After the Carey Lowell departure, the writers did not kill off Jamie Ross, so the door stayed open for a return. Lowell appeared in Season 10, Episode 5, in 1999, and in Season 11, Episode 22, in 2001. She played Jamie again, by then a judge, in the first season of Law & Order: Trial by Jury in 2005.
NBC canceled the original series in 2010 after Season 20, then revived it for Season 21 in 2022. Lowell returned for the revival premiere.
She told the Television Academy the 2022 return felt different from her years as a series regular. She said she arrived at 7 a.m. but did not shoot her scene until about 7 p.m. “Things change,” she said.
Cast exits have shaped the franchise before. See how Mehcad Brooks explained his Season 25 departure from Law & Order, and why Christopher Meloni’s decision to leave SVU hit Mariska Hargitay hard.
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