When Steve Carell chose to leave The Office, there was a massive void where his character used to be. Steve was on the cult TV show for seven seasons, and his portrayal of Michael Scott was one of the most hailed performances on the show, and perhaps in the history of comedic television.

When Carell finally left, the NBC series struggled to stay alive, and some fans argued that the overall quality of it declined following his departure. In recent news, Carell explained that he had no interest in reprising his role once again.

The actor explained that when The Office was on the air, it wasn’t all that popular at the time. However, the show has since become a cult classic with a dedicated fan base. One only has to go on YouTube to see the fan-made compilation videos or the memes all over Instagram and other social sharing platforms.

According to Collider, the new book, The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, explained that Carell’s departure from the series had a lot more to do with the network rather than a need to move away from The Office as quickly as possible, as it had been presented in the media at the time.

During an interview with BBC back in 2010, Carell explained to reporters that the seventh season would probably be his final year. In 2010, Carell’s contract was about to end, and NBC was currently going through a shift in the executive offices.

Bob Greenblatt who was replacing Jeff Zucker, apparently wasn’t the biggest fan of the series. The new book explained that because Carell was never given the offer to return to the series, he wound up choosing to leave.

In other words, the writer claims that had the network shown more interest in the show, perhaps Steve would’ve stuck around.

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Ferry said in the book that Greenblatt thought the situation was out of his hands by the time he arrived, whereas Carell felt that it was best to move on if there was no contract renewal.