‘Kevin Can Wait’: Leah Remini Responds To Haters After Death Of Erinn Hayes’ Character In Season 2 Premiere

Leah Remini is defending the way Kevin Can Wait producers addressed the death of the show’s original leading lady character, formerly played by Erinn Hayes. It was announced over the summer that Hayes would not be returning to the second season of the CBS sitcom and that her character, Donna Gable, would be killed off of the show, while Leah Remini would be promoted to a series regular. But the off-handed way in which the death of Donna Gable was addressed in the Kevin Can Wait Season 2 premiere had many fans of the show outraged.

Shortly after the Kevin Can Wait premiere, “Civil Service,” aired on CBS, Leah Remini took to Twitter to respond to critics of the show and those who blame her for Hayes’ firing. One angry fan called Remini “classless” for replacing Erinn Hayes as Kevin James’ leading lady on Kevin Can Wait, accusing the former Scientologist of bumping Hayes out of the job when she doesn’t even need the money and telling her that she broke the girl code.

“I didn’t make that decision,” Remini wrote Of Hayes’ departure from Kevin Can Wait, before reminding the angry fan that Hayes has already found work on a new TV show.

“It’s a sitcom & isn’t that deep,” Leah added of Kevin Can Wait. “Real things are going on in the world.”

Another Kevin Can Wait viewer wrote that they hope the show bombs with Remini on it, to which Leah deadpanned that the hater was sugarcoating things.

The death of Erinn Hayes’ character was only briefly mentioned in the Kevin Can Wait premiere. Viewers first learned of the character’s death in the opening scene, when Kevin Gable (Kevin James) complained that his late wife’s gym was still sending “We miss you” postcards to the house. The mention ended with a joke about a karate class coupon and did not reveal how the Gable mom died.

Remini made it clear that she doesn’t write or produce Kevin Can Wait and has no idea how Donna Gable died. Leah added that she thinks it would be a good idea for producers to answer that question in the future.

Leah Remini also defended Erinn Hayes, describing the former Kevin Can Wait star as “lovely and funny.”

“I was looking forward to working with her again,” Leah wrote. “She is on another show on Amazon. So blessings to us all.”

You can see Leah Remini’s tweets about Kevin Can Wait below.

How do you really feel? I feel like you are sugar coating it

— Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) September 25, 2017

I don't know honey. I don't write or produce the show. But it's a good idea to answer that in the future

— Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) September 26, 2017

She is lovely and funny. And I was looking forward to working with her again. She is on another show on amazon. So blessings to us all

— Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) September 26, 2017

Leah Remini previously played Kevin James’ wife for 19 years on The King of Queens, so some fans feel the revamped Kevin Can Wait is simply a KOQ reboot. But James has long denied that he is trying to recreate TV history with his longtime leading lady.

“This show was originally going to be about a single dad, but the way the story started going, we went with the great Erinn Hayes,” James explained to Entertainment Weekly. “But then it felt like a very familiar family sitcom again and it kind of went down the track where we felt like the show needed a little emotional weight to drive the character…It had nothing to Erinn’s acting ability or her comedic talent; she’s incredible.”

The Kevin Can Wait star also said he feels the show handled the death of the Gable matriarch in a “very classy” way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBQdLOP0VKo

Kevin Can Wait airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.

[Featured Image by David M. Russell/CBS]