‘Shameless Season 9’ Air Date, Cast, Characters: Who Will Replace Fiona Now That Emmy Rossum Is Leaving?

“Shameless” Season 9 is going to be the final episode for the family-oriented drama, at least for Fiona Gallagher (Emmy Rossum). The award-winning New York-born actress decided to leave the show after starring in it for eight seasons, Cosmopolitan reported.

Rossum broke the news in an emotional Facebook post, which went into detail about how much the show meant to her, as well as the experiences she learned during her involvement in it. For fans of the series, “Shameless” Season 9 is not going to be the same without Fiona as she was an integral part that kept the family together.

The series is centered on the dysfunctional Gallagher family, where Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) is the father. But he doesn’t really act the part since the character spends most of his days drinking and seeking misadventures, leaving his children to fend for themselves. As such, Fiona has had to step up and take care of her siblings. But that care will vanish in “Shameless” Season 9 and it’s unclear who will fill the shoes of such an important character.

Some fans are saying that Lip (Jeremy Allen White) is capable of substituting Fiona’s role of heading the household as he has stepped up to the plate in times when the eldest Gallagher couldn’t. The showrunners have yet to comment on this but they did acknowledge Rossum’s decision as well as thanked her for the hard work she put into the show.

“We were saddened when Emmy Rossum let us know that the upcoming ninth season of ‘Shameless’ would be her last. But we are filled with an overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude for Emmy’s inspired work on our series, of course in front of the camera but also behind it,” said Gary Levine, Showtime's president of programming.

So what exactly is the reason behind Rossum’s departure in “Shameless” Season 9? While she didn’t actually address this fact in her Facebook post, many assumed that it was because of unfair compensation.

In the previous installment, news broke out that Rossum wasn’t paid the same wage as her co-star Macy and the actress asked the show to give her a raise since she’s one of the series’ headliners. The show agreed and gave her a contract for “Shameless” Season 9 that would see her get paid the same as her leading –costar.

But Rossum still didn’t sign the contract, asking for an even larger pay than Macy as compensation for not being paid equally in the previous seasons. For his part, Macy supported Rossum for speaking out, adding that Fiona is actually the center of the show, not Frank. Now, it seems that the network and Rossum didn’t land on the same page that’s why “Shameless” Season 9 will have Fiona walk out of the Gallagher household.

“Shameless” Season 9 will premiere on Sept. 9 and its longtime followers are already proclaiming that Rossum’s absence will heavily affect the show. But as Rossum herself said, there’s still a lot of stories that the Gallagher family has to offer, even if Fiona is no longer included in that ensemble.