Kevin James Is Killing Off His ‘Kevin Can Wait’ Wife to Make Room for His ‘King of Queens’ Wife

HARSH.

Make room for Leah Remini!

Earlier this summer, CBS announced that Erinn Hayes—the actress who plays Kevin James’ wife—would not be returning to the not-so-good-but-somewhat-successful sitcom Kevin Can Wait. Now, we know what happened to her.

Per Variety:

On Tuesday morning at the Television Critics Association press tour, CBS executives revealed that Hayes’ character will be killed off, in order to handle the re-casting.

“The character will have passed away and we will be moving forward in time catching up at a later date,” CBS boss Thom Sherman explained of the storyline, speaking at TCA, held in Beverly Hills, Calif.

When asked by a reporter if “Kevin Can Wait” is “morphing into ‘King of Queens’” by reuniting Remini and James, Sherman answered, “No, I don’t think so. I think the show speaks for itself and stands for itself. Obviously the chemistry between Kevin and Leah was amazing in the stunt episode we did at the end of last season, and we decided we want to continue that.”

So who has better chemistry anyway? Here’s a clip of James and Hayes from Kevin Can Wait:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06n6zFlxZTE

And here’s James and Remini in a guest spot from the end of the first season:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rnCVK2NXzc

Honestly, both of them elevate the pretty crappy sitcom to somewhat watchable levels, so we’re guessing James just prefers working with his old pal Remini.

Maybe he just can’t get the classic cover of Maxim’s defunct little brother Stuff out of his head…