Why Law & Order: Los Angeles Killed Off Skeet Ulrich's Rex Winters

In 2010, it appeared like "Scream" star Skeet Ulrich was being positioned as one of the main leads (if not the main lead) in "Law & Order: Los Angeles." However, just nine episodes into the spin-off series, his character Detective Rex Winters was gunned down and killed off.

According to franchise creator Dick Wolf, Ulrich's abrupt exit from the show came down to a host of external factors. In an April 2011 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, shortly before the series returned from a mid-season break and major casting reshuffle, Wolf plainly admitted that then NBC Entertainment president Robert Greenblatt was not a fan of the first batch of episodes. The exec also wished to put a bigger spotlight on Alfred Molina and Terrence Howard and their respective characters.

"We had a very honest conversation, I think the second or third day he was there, that he had some problems with the show — specifically with the front half and he didn't think it was clicking the way it should," Wolf said. "He was very supportive of the idea of having Alfred and Terrence in every episode."

As for Ulrich's exit, Wolf acknowledged that while the situation was unavoidable, it still hurt. "Sometimes someone has to die so that everyone else can live," the veteran producer said prior to the show's 2011 return (per the Los Angeles Times). "It was a very, very painful call to make."

Years later, Ulrich described his time on the LA-based police procedural as one of the least creatively fulfilling projects he's ever been part of, believing that that the network's decisions caused more harm than good.

"There was a lot going on at the upper echelon that had nothing to do with the day-to-day of making that show and the results of it," Ulrich told The A.V. Club in 2017. "And the only comeuppance I had is that they lost six million viewers after I was killed. And I was laughing on a beach in Italy when I heard." Despite his firing, Ulrich expressed nothing but immense praise for his fellow castmates.

"Law & Order: Los Angeles" was ultimately cancelled by NBC after one season, and often ranks as one of the lower-tier installments in the "Law & Order" franchise.