Ryan Murphy Thinks Glee Should’ve Ended After Cory Monteith Died
The show continued for another two seasons.
Ryan Murphy has a few regrets over how Glee handling of the sudden death of Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson in the series. The TV mogul recently appeared on Glee stars Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz’s new series rewatch podcast, And That's What You Really Missed, where he opened up about not knowing how to move forward with the show following Monteith’s passing.
The Nov. 7 podcast episode featured the second half of the hosts’ interview with Murphy, during which McHale and Ushkowitz asked their former boss about what went on behind the scenes to address Monteith’s death. The actor died in July 2013, and production for the show’s fifth season kicked off just weeks later in August.
“I thought a lot about that recently,” Murphy said of proceeding with the series in the weeks following Monteith’s detah. “I would not have done that show now. I just would not have done it.”
In hindsight, Murphy said he could have encouraged those involved with the show to take a step back and properly grieve Monteith. “I felt like it was way too raw and way too soon,” Murphy said, specifically recalling Season 5’s “The Quarterback” episode which served as a tribute to Monteith and a send-off for his character.
“If I could do it all over again, knowing now what I do know, I probably would have said, ‘You know what? We’re going to take a year off and then we’re going to check in and see how everybody [feels],’” he said on the podcast.
In fact, Murphy now thinks he should have considered canceling the show. “Now if this had happened, I would be like, ‘That’s the end,’ because you can’t really recover from something like that,” Murphy said, given Monteith died from an overdose on July 17, 2013. “It wasn’t a normal death where someone was sick and you can see them. It happened so quickly with no warning.”
And That's What You Really Missed marks the latest Glee podcast from McHale and Ushkowitz. McHale played Artie Abrams in the series, and Ushkowitz played Tina Cohen-Chang. They previously had another podcast called Showmance. However, they ended it shortly after the death of their Glee co-star and close friend Naya Rivera in July 2020.
Murphy previously appeared as a the first guest during the inaugaural Oct. 30 episode of And That's What You Really Missed.
