Nicole Eggert left “Baywatch” after she was promised a spinoff that never materialized.
actress Explained on Monday’s episode of the “Still Here Hollywood” podcast When she was starring in the 1980s sitcom “Charles in Charge,” the show’s executive producer, Al Burton, got in touch with “Baywatch” bosses.
At the time, they wanted Eggert to lead a spinoff that he described as “a ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’-esque show on the beach.”
“He said, ‘I want Nicole to be involved.’ And then David Charvet and some other artists,” he told host Steve Kemetko. “And they wanted to bring us on and do a spinoff.”
“It will be ‘a high school training to be a lifeguard at the beach,’ and it will be its own thing.”
The 54-year-old actress said that when she joined “Baywatch” at the beginning of Season 3, the syndicated series “had become the No. 1 show in the world.”
However, the success of the series also led to the scrapping of plans for a spinoff.
“They were like, ‘Spinoff? Nothing! This is what’s working, and we want it to stay that way!'” Eggert recalled.
“So after two seasons, I politely dropped out, because it wasn’t really what I signed up for,” she explained.
Eggert, who was only 20 at the time, admitted that she made a hasty decision on leaving the series.
Eggert shared, “I had some crazy idea in my head that if I left the show, I would be able to separate myself from the stigma that the show had given all of us as actors, which is a thing now.”
He added, “But at 20 years old…if I could go back and talk to that 20-year-old…crazy thoughts.”
Eggert – who is currently recovering from breast cancer treatment – also admitted that the canned spinoff “was a great idea” and “would have been a great show.”
“And Elizabeth Berkley was attached,” Eggert said of the “Saved by the Bell” actress. “We had a very good cast.”
“Baywatch” aired for 11 seasons from 1989 to 2001 and starred David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, Gregory Alan Williams, Alexandra Paul, Jeremy Jackson, Parker Stevenson, Billy Warlock, Erica Eleniak and Yasmin Bleeth.
The show spawned a spinoff, “Baywatch Nights”, which aired for two seasons from 1995 to 1997, followed by a film in 2017.
Fox’s upcoming “Baywatch” reboot, starring Stephen Amell, Shay Mitchell, Noah Beck, Brooks Nader and Levi Dunn, is currently filming.
