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"Smash has axed four cast members. Jaime Cepero (Ellis) and Raza Jaffrey (Dev) will not return for the NBC drama&amp;#039;s second season, while Brian D&amp;#039;Arcy James (Frank) and Will Chase (Michael) have also been dropped, TVLine reports.   Smash star Christian Borle (Tom) previously indicated that the show will undergo a &amp;quot;major... change&amp;quot; next season. &amp;quot;Anything that could have potentially been in the works, I don&amp;#039;t know how much credence you can put into it,&amp;quot; the actor said. &amp;quot;This feels like a major regime change to me, though I know that everybody is really excited [about season two].&amp;quot; New episodes of the musical will not air until 2013, with Gossip Girl&amp;#039;s Josh Safran replacing series creator Theresa Rebeck as showrunner. NBC&amp;#039;s Jennifer Salke recently defended the decision to delay the show&amp;#039;s return, suggesting that the network is keen for Safran to have &amp;quot;an ownership stake in the show&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;We wanted him to be able to stand back and have a real creative discussion about what he wants the season to be and be a big part of that,&amp;quot; she explained. The first season of Smash drew to a close on May 14, pulling in 5.96m viewers for NBC. In the UK, the series continues on Sky Atlantic. &amp;gt; Smash: Season finale &amp;#039;Bombshell&amp;#039; recap Watch Jack Davenport (Derek) talk to Digital Spy about Smash below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/50-shades-of-grey/news/a383094/smash-axes-four-stars-jaime-cepero-raza-jaffrey-not-returning/>