Image Credit: Fox
Big news on Fox’s Bones spin-off. The female lead on The Finder is being recast. Saffron Burrows is leaving the show, sources tell EW.
The former Law & Order: Criminal Intent actress played Geoff Stults’ sidekick in the show’s pilot. Her character was a tough bar owner and helicopter pilot, but the network has decided to re-conceive the role. (One issue for some fans: the British actress played the role with a rather striking cockney accent.)
Recastings are common this time of year after networks analyze their pilots and try to figure out how to make the shows better before they debut in the fall. But normally this all happens behind the scenes. The Finder is unusual, since the pilot starring Burrows actually aired on the network in the Bones slot this season. Other parts being recast across the dial include Damon Wayans Jr. in Fox’s comedy The New Girl and Toby Stephens in NBC’s Prime Suspect.
UPDATE: Also, Beverly D’Angelo isn’t going to be sticking around NBC’s comedy Whitney. The network declined to pick her up for the rest of the show. D’Angelo will stay in the pilot episode, billed as a guest star, where she plays Whitney Cummings’ cynical mother.
See what you think, here’s the original Finder pilot:
RELATED: ‘Bones’: Is the Finder someone you’d watch every week (if he’s shirtless)?
Fail. Don’t understand why they had her even speak with the thick accent as otherwise her acting chops are top notch. Very strange.
hi, i agree with you 100%. She’s fantastic, and beautiful, but her accent in the pilot was grating.
good band.
The Finder needs a brother who’s a straightlaced cop; there was way too much quirk in the 3 Finder leads. The New Girl has too many guys; all they need is hunky Max Greenfield. The show doesn’t need Wayans or the rest of the “shoving buddies.”
Agreed. Her charcter’s harsh accent was one of the many things that I felt needed to be changed/toned down in order to better the show, but I’ve neverhada problem with her acting abilities. The wrtiters definitely need to make some adjustments on the main character, as I felt that his backstory was too thin and unbelievable and they were trying to make him a “male Brennan” by having him being a gifted genius (they should’ve showed us HOW he found Brennan’s long lost award, rather than the silly gratuitous man candy scene with him laying in a scuzzy motel bed in his underwear/on the toilet) with a serious social awkwardness impediment…. Frankly, I was surprised that this show got picked up… there too many procedurals on tv already…
Agreed on all points. Frankly I found the pilot very boring. It had none of the snappy wittiness and charm of Bones so I was pretty disappointed in the episode in general.
An actual Cockney (Scouce, Mancurian, Brommie…etc) accent would not have been bad, but this woman is posh and simply cannot talk like a working-class person.
why not tone down the accent? did they really need to replace her? dumb. i had more problems w. the lead actor being so bland.
Exactly, the lead actor is not really star material, he doesn’t the Booth-esque factor, show is definitely going to be canceled first season.
i think pretty much everyone saw this coming…But they really didnt need to do it all they needed to do was tone down her accent
I didn’t see it coming. I thought they were going to let her grating character drag this show down. I’m glad they are revisiting her to make her less like nails on a chalkboard.
The same thing happened with the NCIS episode in Jag. The team consisted of Dinozzo, Gibbs and Blackadder. In the pilot episode of NCIS they met Todd.
The Finder is not unusual because Private Practice recast a lead actress after the backdoor pilot aired on Grey’s.
Yup, I was thinking the same thing.
Who’s they recast?
Merrin Dungey – probably best known as the fabulous Francie on Alias.
Sorry – hit post too soon. She played the original Naomi.
OMG that’s crazy! I love Francie!
Did you really love Francie? Or were you really lovin’ Allison Doren but didn’t know it?
The Finder is not unusual because Private Practice recast a lead actress after the backdoor pilot aired on Grey’s.
Yup, I was thinking the same thing.
I thought she was the best thing about that show, no need to watch it now.
Agree.
2nd that.
Yep. Saffron Burrows was the only reason I was going to watch. Don’t like Geoff Stults.
I liked the accent and her. Won’t watch it now, no reason to.
I agree. Her accent didn’t bother me at all. I liked her way better than the rest of them. Geoff Stults is hot and all but not enough to keep me tuned in. He and the other guy seemed to be trying too hard.
I’m with you. She was by far the most intriguing one on the show and the reason I was planning on watching – don’t think I’ll waste my time now.
i had NOTHING wrong with her accent AT ALL. i thought she was an awesome character and i was EXTREMELY disappointed to watch the pilot and see that her character had unexplainably disappeared. I dont like the new girl they replaced her with, yeah shes hot i guess but really boring and cliche. and about the young girl, i dont understand why they would have a troubled girl live with a guy who has his own problems… on bones i thought to myself ‘this is going to be a great show.’ but after the pilot… lets just say i didnt watch the 2nd episode last night…
I was deeply distraught that she was not in the series after being introduced in the premier, like a bait and switch con, but I’ll still watch
They could have just had her drop the annoying accent, like Gabrielle Anwar dropped her awful “Irish” accent from the pilot.
Without Saffron, is there any reason to watch this show?
Absolutely loved Gabrielle Anwar ‘s accent in the “Burn Notice” Pilot. The series is worse for its loss.
First off Gabrielle Anwar is really Irish so it was her true accent. They had her drop it on the show as her “cover” of an american
Gabrielle Anwar is English, and she uses an English accent on the show.
Gabrielle Anwar is actually british.
I’m pretty sure she’s Lebonese.
Anwar is definitely British. She was born on 4 February 1970, in Laleham, Middlesex, England, UK
I thought the character would have been more interesting if they had her talk in a more proper English accent.
Can this show really be called a spin-off? Isn’t a spin-off where you take long-term characters from one show and give them their own show, like ‘Angel’ was a spin-off of ‘Buffy’. A ‘Bones’ spin-off would be like Wendell, Daisy, and Clark going off and starting their own scientific research firm, which I think would have great comedic potential.
that’s a better idea than some of the pilots out there
I’m glad this article made it clear that it was a “pilot airing in place of the regular Bones.” There is NO, NONE, NADA, characters of Bones in the “spinoff.”
I did not like the pilot, and even without Saffron I think it will not do well. The premise is just something that has been seen before in other shows, and the prime character just tried too hard to find a female following.
Not sure for other women, but the nudeness and flirtatiousness didn’t do a thing for me.
I rather have a good deep story. Though, I do wish the creators of the show good luck.
NCIS was a spin-off of JAG. You don’t have to use a regular as long as the character was introduced on the series it is being spun-off of. All the Law & Order spin-offs are the same way.
Funny, because the Webster dictionary says a spinoff is: “something that is imitative or derivative of an earlier work, product, or establishment; especially : a television show starring a character popular in a secondary role of an earlier show”
My opinion is that there is no secondary or primary popular character on “Bones” that will work on “The Finder”. So, it really is no spinoff.
It’s not a spinoff in the traditional sense, like Jackie said, but most of the “spinoffs” nowadays seem to be using more established shows to air backdoor pilots introducing the new characters of the new show.
The only show that I can say is a recent for certain true spinoff would be Private Practice. There may be more, but I’ve never seen them, so I wouldn’t be able to judge.
I thought Burrows was one of the most interesting things about The Finder. On Burn Notice, Fi began with an Irish brogue (which I liked), which was then dropped, but they kept the actress, thankfully. If you look at the shows that have been successful recently, it is because they are unique, not cookie cutter shows to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
I liked her alot on Law and Order:CI and would place her behind Katherine Erbe in the female slot, of course those 2 and Annabella were the only 3 I liked, that said I thought she was one of the worse things about the Finder, the other is Michael Clarke Duncan. I think the show is too Psych/Mentalist to succeed regardless of the cast.
Who the hell cares anyway? Ten to one, the show won’t be anything like the episode on Bones so relax.
Hmm, not sure about “The Finders” potential for success; the backdoor pilot was a so-so episode for “Bones”. The accent majorly got on my nerves but I like Saffron Burrows, the actress. I still think she’d be great for the show as long as they nixed her character’s accent.
I liked her accent. I thought it added the the “strange” character make-up of the show. You had her as a tall beautiful bar tender with the British accent. Michael Clarke Duncan as the gigantic wrestle-mania looking lawyer. Geoff Stults as this savant detective who can find anything. I thought it all fit.
Do you mean Chi McBride? He was the attorney.
@Lia – Huh? I hope you are not serious. The lawyer was played by Michael Clarke Duncan.
It was Michael Clarke Duncan. Chi McBride was most recently on Human Target/
I personally didn’t care for her accent or her personality (on the show). I’ll still check it out b/c I happen to like Geoff Stultz and think he’s a good fit for the part.