Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Is Saying Goodbye to Lauren Graham — Here's Why

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist is shaking things up for season two. Following the death of her father in the season one finale, Zoey (Jane Levy) discovers that a lot has changed when she returns to work. In addition to gaining a new coworker (Harvey Guillén) and receiving a big promotion, Zoey finds out that her boss Joan (Lauren Graham) is moving to Singapore to head up the entire Asian division of the company. Yep, Graham is officially leaving the show.

So, what is the reason for her sudden departure? Apparently it all comes down to scheduling conflicts. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the show's creator Austin Winsberg revealed that Graham was supposed to appear in more episodes in season two, but due to production delays for Disney+'s upcoming series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, which Graham stars in and executive produces, both shows ended up filming at the same time.

"Joan was going to be in a lot of the episodes, and then covid happened and their whole schedule got changed, and their schedule became the exact same schedule as our schedule, and that's why you see what happens with Lauren in the first episode," Winsberg told the publication. "We had to adjust multiple episodes because of it. If covid had not happened we would've been golden because that show was supposed to shoot from March through June or July, and we were starting up in September, so it would have been fine. But then the schedules happened at the exact same time and there was no way to make it work."

The good news is that the door is still open for Graham to return. "Nothing would make me happier than having her back," Winsberg said. "Lauren and Jane have such a great rapport when they are playing off of each other. And I feel very fortunate that we were able to get her at all." While we're certainly going to miss Joan, we're hopeful that we'll get to see her again in future seasons.