Hill Harper will not be returning to “The Good Doctor” for the ABC procedural’s upcoming seventh season as he focuses on his U.S. Senate campaign.
Harper, who has starred as Dr. Marcus Andrews alongside Freddie Highmore on “The Good Doctor,” has thrown his hat in the ring to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate as a democratic candidate.
“Hill Harper feels strongly that there is a crisis in American democracy — too often, government only works for the rich and powerful while the rest of us struggle to find a voice,” a spokesperson for Hill’s campaign told TVLine, who first reported the news. “Hill is dedicating his efforts full time to fixing that, and he’s running for the U.S. Senate as an active union member to give working people more of a voice in Congress.”
The news comes four months after Harper first announced his candidacy to succeed the outgoing incumbent senator Debbie Stabenow. He will go head-to-head in the race against Michigan congresswoman and former CIA analyst Elissa Slotkin.
Harper’s potential exit was set up in the Season 6 finale of the medical drama, which debuted on May 1, when Harper’s Dr. Marcus Andrews resigned as president of St. Bonaventure.
Representatives for ABC and for Hill’s U.S. Senate campaign did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Following the Hollywood double strike this summer, “The Good Doctor” is set to make its midseason return on Feb. 20 after it was renewed for a seventh installment in April.
During the spring season of “The Good Doctor,” the ABC show aired a backdoor pilot of spin-off “The Good Lawyer,” which was set to be led by Kennedy McMann and Felicity Huffman before the network axed the potential series in November.
