Piper to leave Who!

[Chancellor Valium]

Saw this on the Daily Mail (there weren't any copies of the Telegraph or the Times left...). Apparently Billie Piper is going to leave at some point midway through season 2.

[Zeke]

Son of a --! Man, this sucks. The show got off to such a great start and now it's lost both lead actors.

[Chancellor Valium]

Well, hopefully Tenant can pull the part off. I'll give you a revised opinion after Friday night :mrgreen:

[PointyHairedJedi]

Shucks! Any idea when she's going, or why? To say that I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that she can actually act is something of an understatement, so it's a real shame to loose her so comparitively soon.

[Chancellor Valium]

Shucks! Any idea when she's going, or why? To say that I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that she can actually act is something of an understatement, so it's a real shame to loose her so comparitively soon.
Sometime around the end of season 2...

[Scooter]

Note: This is still not confirmed, so it counts as a rumor. However, it's reported by the same guy who broke the Eccleston story. And the BBC official response is "We're not talking about Season Three yet," which sure isn't a denial.

[Anonymous]

Update: Piper's future still unclear (from Outpost Gallifrey)

There is more confusion regarding Billie Piper's future on Doctor Who beyond the end of the series. As we previously reported, the Mirror stated over this past weekend that she would be leaving the series at the end of this coming season; the BBC issued a simple statement of "No comment" in reply.

Now, in an 'exclusive' in this past Sunday's Daily Star, the paper reports that Piper has "laughed off" reports that she is quitting the show, quoting her as saying she would never let Davies or the show down as she is so grateful to both. They also claim, via an alleged friend of Piper, that she has already signed a contract to do a third series. The article quotes a 'friend' as stating that Piper is already under contract for a third series, even though it has been stated elsewhere that this is not the case. ITN has also picked up the story, directly quoting Piper as calling the rumours "rubbish," though not offering clues about where this comment comes from. Yet ITV says that Billie "squashes Dr Who rumours" but intimates that it actually comes from a reporter asknig Piper as she left a restaurant Saturday night.

Meanwhile, in a comment posted on an Internet forum at AllSpark, an unnamed source who identifies themselves as working on the series describes the situation thus: "As of me leaving work on Friday night, she's probably not going. She's not signed a contract for season 3, but then she only signed her contract for season 2 about two months after they started filming, so don't read too much into that. We're hopeful we'll get her, but she does have a lot of tempting offers on the table. I think she will be in season 3, but if she's there for the whole thing or just some of it is something way from being decided. The bit about us already holding auditions for a replacement is bollocks though. We have enough work on without auditioning people eight months before we'd actually want them."

Personally I think that even if she were leaving she would still "laugh off" reports until everything was finalized and a public announcement could be made.

[PointyHairedJedi]

That says nothing to me other than the fact that the BBC have learned ever so slightly from the rampant boobery that surrounded the annoucnement of Ecclestone's departure.

[Chancellor Valium]

That says nothing to me other than the fact that the BBC have learned ever so slightly from the rampant boobery that surrounded the annoucnement of Ecclestone's departure.
Agreed.