“I’ve had better days, to be quite honest,” Colin Egglesfield, the resident hot guy on Melrose Place, sat down recently to talk about his departure from the show - a decision he says took him by surprise.

The CW has claimed that it was part of the show’s plan all along to be rid of both Egglesfield and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, who will also be leaving Melrose Place. Egglesfield, however, tells a different story. “Obviously the ratings aren’t what they need or want them to be, so they’re [the network] going to try things to shake things up.”

Still, kicking the hottest guy off the show seems like bad business. Simpson-Wentz and Egglesfield were among the more interesting aspects of the show. If people have got to go, I say get rid of the school teacher and the film maker - that story is one I’m long done with.

Egglesfield says he was “definitely” initially hired by the show to be a regular cast member. “I was slated to be in ten of the first thirteen episodes, but I had a multiyear contract.” He went on to explain what happened to change all this: “I got a call this morning from our producers…They were really saddened, and you could tell it was difficult for them to break this news to me. They said it was a network decision, and they said the network thought Auggie was a little too dark, with his alcoholism. They felt like in the landscape of Melrose they wanted to change the tone of the show. So that’s the explanation that they gave me.” Sure, ditch the alcoholic but keep the thief and the prostitute? Bad tactics.

“They said that it wasn’t anything against me or my talent or anything,” Egglesfield said. “And it wasn’t like I was getting in fights with crew members or punching people out.”

But don’t worry - this isn’t the last you’ve seen of him. “I’ve already got a bunch of auditions lined up,” he reported Thursday night, which bodes well for the future.

What about his Melrose Place future? Will Auggie be killed or sent off to prison as a killer himself? Well, Egglesfield dished on a few of the deets: “The way in which I’m leaving the show, I’m not being killed off, I’m just leaving. It keeps the door open for, potentially, my character to come back, but who knows?”