It became official on Monday, when Jorja Fox, who plays the recovering alcoholic Sara Sidle on the still-enormously popular CBS crime show, CSI, confirmed to ew.com that she is leaving the show this fall.

There had been much speculation in the TV press that Fox was quitting in this, the show’s eighth season. Last season’s glimpses of Sara’s and Grissom’s personal lives (they are a couple) led close followers to believe that Sara was doomed as a character, as no love goes unpunished on this show.

Last year’s cliff-hanger finale in which Sara disappeared, and this season’s premiere in which they wrapped up the miniature serial killer storyline, saw Gil confessing his love for Sara to the rest of the CSI gang. Then came the internal investigation, yada, yada, yada.

Fox told ew.com that she wrapped production last week, and will appear in five more episodes, ending her run in mid-November.

“There are all these things I want to do. Some are personal. Some are professional. And I really need to do some of them before I get too old,” she is quoted as saying. “If I thought the show were on its last legs, I would have tried harder to stay the course. But I feel like its going to be around for a while, so if I don’t want some of those dreams to pass me by. I have to get off the ride for a while.”

This got me thinking about other actors who jumped ship from successful shows.

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