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"Criminal Minds exec Erica Messer has admitted that it will be difficult to replace Prentiss (Paget Brewster). Brewster&amp;#039;s BAU agent departed the show in last night&amp;#039;s (May 16) season finale, with Messer telling Zap2it that &amp;quot;there are talks&amp;quot; ongoing about a replacement character. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s unlike most shows in that sense that changing out characters can be a really difficult thing to do, and we&amp;#039;ve learned that,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;I can [also] see this team going on as they are, because one of the hardest things for all of us writing it and fans is to introduce a new person to that round table. It&amp;#039;s such a family.&amp;quot; Messer added that it had been &amp;quot;tricky&amp;quot; when new character Ashley Seaver (Rachel Nichols) briefly replaced JJ (AJ Cook) in the show&amp;#039;s sixth season. &amp;quot;She was so young,&amp;quot; explained the showrunner. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s OK for... Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) because he&amp;#039;s super-special genius boy, but it&amp;#039;s hard to make excuses for that [age gap] when we&amp;#039;ve said for so long that it&amp;#039;s such an elite group.&amp;quot; Criminal Minds returns to Wednesdays at 9/8c in the fall. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a382156/criminal-minds-exec-introducing-a-new-regular-is-tricky/>