Nellie Andreeva

There will be a change at the helm of CW’s drama 90210. Rebecca Sinclair, who took the reins of the show toward the end of its rocky first season and is credited with turning it around, is leaving. The news first broke on TVLine. No replacement for Sinclair has been named yet. While not picked up yet, 90210‘s renewal for next season is considered a sure thing.

Following her stint as co-executive producer on Gilmore Girls, Sinclair was focused for the first time on her own development in the summer of 2008 when she was approached about joining then-new series 90210 as an executive producer under an overall deal with the soap’s producer CBS TV Studios. Under the pact, she was supposed to eventually segue to development, but she instead became showrunner and ran the series for the past two seasons. (Production on Season 3 of the show just wrapped.) I hear CBS TV Studios approached Sinclair with a generous offer for a new deal, but she declined. The reason? For the past season, Sinclair brought her infant daughter to work every day and felt she wanted to spend more time with her at home. But more than anything else, “it was a creative decision,” Sinclair said. “I’m eager to write my own stuff. I’m going to try to write a novel — something I’ve been wanting to do since college — a pilot and a movie. Working on 90210 has been an incredible learning experience, like going to the most intensive school, and I feel I’ve come out ready to create my own show.” Sinclair says the only time she doubted her decision was while directing 90210‘s upcoming third-season finale. “I got to direct an elephant and a giant Indian wedding, and I got to ride an elephant for a day, so I thought: Dear God, I’m going to give that up?”

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