Christina Ricci Exits ‘Girlfriend In A Coma’ Pilot

Christina Ricci is exiting the NBC pilot for Girlfriend in a Coma.

Ricci was the first major cast member to sign on for the pilot last month. She was set to play Karen, a woman who spends nearly two decades in a coma and awakens to find out she has a 17-year-old daughter. iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove was cast as her daughter, Evie. The series is based on Douglas Coupland’s 1998 novel of the same name.

Daniel Stern (Home Alone) and Ann Cusack (A League of Their Own) will play Karen’s parents, who have been raising Evie.

Girlfriend in a Coma was scheduled to be filmed in New York, where the 33-year-old is based. It it is unclear whether production will continue in New York, or if it will be moved to Los Angeles.

Why Ricci decided to leave the pilot hasn’t been confirmed, but Cinema Blend reports that the actress left the pilot following a table read.

Ricci previously starred in the short-lived ABC drama Pan Am. The series ran for a single 14-episode season and was canceled due to low ratings. The pilot drew 11 million viewers, but that number dropped significantly with subsequent episodes. The penultimate episode pulled in a paltry 2.57 million viewers.

Last month, Ricci announced that she and James Heerdegen, her boyfriend of almost a year, had gotten engaged in late 2012. The couple met on the set of Pan Am; Heerdegen was working on the show as a dolly grip. The two have yet to set a wedding date.

Ricci was previously engaged to Sullivan Son star Owen Benjamin in 2009.

Other pilots that have recently had to undergo recastings are ABC’s Keep Calm and Karey On and Fox’s Gang Related.

Are you disappointed that Christina Ricci has left Girlfriend in a Coma? Who do you think should replace her?