Chord Overstreet Leaving Glee – Sam Evans Not Returning to McKinley High – Oh No!

Things are changing at McKinley High next season!

US Magazine is reporting that Chord Overstreet, who plays Sam Evans on Glee, will not be returning to the series this fall for season 3.

It seems it’s not as much as Overstreet is leaving on his own, but rather the producers decided not to renew the 22-year-old actors contract.

Glee creator Ryan Murphy created suspense last week when he said MOST of the students would be returning saying,

“The show to me is about the way you express yourself as you start to move out into the world as a fresh, young person. Do we really want to have an eight-year high school senior? The only way somebody could stay on the show is if they flunk, and that is always a possibility. I think Brittany is pulling straight F’s.”

Speculation ran wild among fans as they tried to figure out who would not be returning. Clues came last week when Chord sent out a tweet saying,

“It’s been a good year. Too bad it’s over. Time for summer and starting fresh.”

Bummer.

But what is bad for one cast member may be good for others as we hear that season 3 will move two smaller roles into full time mode.

Related: Massive Cast Shakeup at “Glee” - Rachel, Sam, Finn and Kurt Are Out!

Darren Criss, who plays gay Blaine, Kurt Hummel’s (Chris Colfer) not so secret man crush, will move into a fulltime role.

And so will Harry Shum Jr., who plays Mike.

Related: Chris Colfer Writing Movies for Disney Now

Chord, who was born in Nashville Tennessee, will continue to make an occasional guest appearance, and is currently filming “Glee: The 3D Concert Movie” - A concert documentary shot during the “Glee Live! In Concert!” summer 2011 tour.

But don’t feel bad for Overstreet. He has already appeared on several television shows including “Private”, “iCarly”, and “No Ordinary Family.”

He also appeared in the 2011 Norwegian movie “A Warriors Heart” about a star Lacrosse who starts acting out in self-destructive ways that has his mom at her wit's end.

We think he will do just fine and probably has a ton of job offers just waiting for his approval.

Watch Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Chord Overstreet


And how did he get the name Chord anyway?

“My dad is in the music business in Nashville. I was the third child born in my family, and there are three notes in a chord, so that's how they came up with my name.”

You know what they say – art imitates life!

Follow InfoStar on Twitter – The perfect chord

Meredith Vieira leaving TODAY Show - Ann Curry New Co-anchor – Video

Meredith Vieira announced this morning that she will be leaving the NBC Today Show next month.

Current news correspondent Ann Curry will assume her role as co-anchor along with Matt Lauer.

It had been rumored that Lauer was also leaving but NBC says they have a multi-year contract and he is happy with his role and will be staying put.

NBC News President Steve Capus said,

“Meredith is a remarkable woman and broadcaster who in five short years has left an indelible imprint on morning television. While we will miss waking up with her each morning, we are working together on developing her next chapter at NBC News.”

Meredith, 57, joined Matt Lauer at the anchor desk in 2006 when Katie Couric left to anchor the CBS Evening News.



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Katie Couric Officially Steps Down From the CBS Evening News

After five years of hosting the Evening News on CBS, Katie Couric has made it official by announcing that she is stepping down from her anchor chair.

Couric never really found a grove with viewers and ratings for her show declined each year.

The network has not announced her last show but is moving to hire Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes" as her successor as early as next week.

Couric’s contract expires June 4 and she says she would like to create and host her own talk show by next year.

Couric's news broadcast was seen nightly by about 6.3 million viewers, the Nielsen Co. said. That's only two-thirds of the usual viewership of 9.8 million for Brian Williams and NBC's "Nightly News." ABC's "World News" with Diane Sawyer gets about 8.7 million viewers.

Couric has released the following statement,

“I’m really proud of the talented team on the CBS Evening News and the award-winning work we’ve been able to do in the past five years in addition to the reporting I’ve done for 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning.

In making the decision to move on, I know the Evening News will be in great hands, but I am excited about the future.”

Are Meredith Vieira AND Matt Lauer Both Leaving NBC’s Today Show? Say it Aint So!

In what can only be described as major bad news for the NBC network, reports are surfacing that BOTH Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer say they will be leaving the Today show later this year.

Some are wondering if the network can survive yet another high profile departure after the blow from Alec Baldwin yesterday that “30 Rock” is over.

Related: Alec Baldwin Says ’30 Rock’ Ending – Tina Fey Leaving the Show

When asked about the speculation, NBC press handlers said,

“There seems to be an awful lot of speculation around news anchors these days, and it’s not our practice to comment on any of it. Matt Lauer has a long term contract with NBC News and ‘Today. ”

True. But both host contracts are due to expire at the end of this year, and “ET” reported that Lauer had been telling everybody he planned to move on once his contract expired in December. And TV Guide was reporting earlier this week about Meredith’s desire to exit the show.

TV Guide says Vieira has been in discussions with NBC executives for several months about extending her contract, but she is said to be exhausted with the demanding early hours and is ready to move on.

Vieira also said that the health of her husband, who has battled multiple sclerosis and cancer, will be a factor in considering her future on the program.

It doesn’t appear that there is any personal friction between the two hosts, in fact they seem like they get along pretty well, even in live embarrassing moments like when Matt Lauer’s divorce turned into laughs on the show.

On critic stated,

“Of course NBC is going to deny it. They just lost ’30 Rock’ and now their morning news lineup is falling apart.”

There has been some speculation that Vieira, Lauer, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are gracefully trying to exit the network before the Comcast NBC Universal deal begins to impact daily operations.

One insider commented,

“Comcast is going to chop up every bit of content they can mine from NBC and either charge for it or try to keep others from embedding it on the internet. The days of being able to freely use NBC content are over.”

THAT seems to make more sense than anything else – the big stars want to get behind NBC before the Comcast takeover is complete because they see what the future will look like and they don’t want any part of it.

But it could also be the oldest ploy in the Hollywood playbook – act like you’re going to leave just before your contract expires so they will offer you more money for the next season.

Somehow, in a sad way, that seems to make the most sense of all.

Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon – your move?