Melrose Place has sliced away its resident chef. In a shocking move to increase its anemic ratings, the struggling CW series has fired Colin Egglesfield (Auggie) and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz (Violet).

While she claims she always knew her premature end was in the cards, Colin makes no such assertion to save face. He tells it like it is, opening up here about his disappointment, how his co-stars have been supportive, what he thinks went wrong, what he'd heard was going to happen with his character in the future, and what he hopes will be next. And he tells it all with humor and class.

Hey Colin. So incredibly sorry about this bad break.
You're telling me, man. Auggie had so much more cooking and loving to do for everyone on the show. And now he's not going to get the opportunity to do it. It's frustrating. I'm just bummed not being able to go there to work with everyone because it was such a fun place.

What's been the best part about the gig?
He was so multi-layered. Playing a recovering alcoholic provided me the opportunity to research and meet some real people who had this struggle.

How many more of you do we get to see before your'e gone?
I'm in a total of 10 of the first 13 and my last episode airs in January.

What's going to happen to Auggie before he's gone?
You're going to see my relationship with Riley come to a point where we have to confront our feelings for each other. But then Violet meddles in and I end up doing some stuff with Violet because things don't work out with Riley as I hoped. Plus, he gets fired from Coal next week when he has a fight with Marcello. To fill the void in my life, there's that bottle of tequila staring me in the face. Violet offers a shoulder to lean on, and it turns into more than that.

Beyond that, what had they told you was coming up?
They had told me they were going to explore his relationship with his mom, who was an alcoholic. I was left to cook and raise my brothers and sisters while she was off at work. It seemed like, with Heather Locklear coming on board, that something could have started between us. When Heather walked into the table read I gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and said, 'I am so excited to see you.' I was really looking forward to having some stuff with her, but...

When do you shoot your last episode?
I start on Monday and wrap the following Monday.

How do they write you out?
They don't kill him off so there could be a possibility for Auggie to
return.

How did you get the news?
(Executive producers) Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin called me Thursday morning and said, 'Listen Colin, we just want to let you know this was a network decision.' They loved my character and really liked me and thought I was a really great actor. They said the network thought my character's tone and his alcoholism was a little too dark and brooding for the show. They want to make it more a fun, hip, cool show that doesn't have the dark backdrop.

Hmmm.. That doesn't sound right. David (Shaun Sipos) is the dark, brooding one. Auggie is the surfer boy who's always smiling.
At the end of the day, it's not up to me. You can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out exactly why it's happening and that's a waste of time.

Did they tell you in the call that Ashlee was also going?
Yeah.

She's claiming she always knew this was a short-term role. That
sounds fishy. Anything to say about that?
Um...I don't know. I haven't spoken to her, so I don't know.

Who have you heard from in the cast?
Almost everyone, which has been great. In these six months I've been working with them, they've become great friends. They've said how shocked and sad they were that I'm leaving. That meant a lot. Stephanie (Jacobsen, Lauren) and Laura (Leighton, Sydney) were really supportive. And Michael (Rady, Jonah) called and said standing next to Jessica (Lucas, Riley) and Katie (Cassidy, Ella) and said, 'All three of us are standing here in shock. We can't believe it.' It's nice to know they care.

Did anyone offer you with some special advice?
Thomas Calabro (Michael) called me and said, 'In my thirty years of doing this, there is a difference between an audience not liking a character and not liking an actor. And just because this role may not have fit in with the grand scheme of Melrose Place, he wasn't worried about my future.

Were there rumblings that they were going to make some changes?
You hear talk about them wanting to spice things up because the ratings were not what they hoped they would be. And after there was the hesitation over whether the back nine episodes were going to be picked up, I knew that wasn't the best sign. They had to do something to shake things up to get the ratings to come up a bit.

So were you shocked by the news?
Yeah. I didn't expect this. But I was also on All My Children, cast as the son of Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) and I thought that was a role I could play for the next 20 years. And then three years later they decided not to renew my contract which made me realize that if that could happen, anything could.

What are your new goals now that you're a free player?
I would love to work on another TV series, like Flashforward or Lost. I would love a smart action series with great characters. My agent and manager have already set up some auditions for some new shows.

Are you going to steal anything from that courtyard as a souvenir?
(Laughs) The thing is, we all have our cast chairs with our names on them, but my name tag on the chair was stolen the first month of filming, so I don't even have that to take with me. If it ends up on e-bay, I'll know who stole it!