Last summer, Steve Carell announced that he would be leaving The Office at the end of its seventh season. The news itself did not come as a shock to many in the industry, as it had been public knowledge that this would be the last season of a three-year contract signed by Carell in 2008.

What was more unexpected was the announcement that despite the loss of its main star, The Office will continue into an eighth season. Critical response to the show has been falling for several seasons, and Carell’s Michael Scott, manager of fictional paper company Dunder-Mifflin, has been one of the few sources of praise recently.

Despite the critical opinion that the show has declined in quality, though, ratings for the show have remained consistent throughout its run. As one of NBC’s most viewed programs, keeping the show going makes sense, particularly considering the difficulty the network has had since the failure of the The Jay Leno Show in the ten o’clock time slot.

The big question on the minds of die-hard Office fans, however, is whether or not the show will be able to succeed without Carell’s character.

Christina Foster, a sophomore in business administration, is curious to see where the show goes without Carell but believes it will not do well without him.

“I’m not sure if The Office could ever really be The Office everyone knows and loves without Steve Carell in the cast,” Foster said. “It will be interesting to witness the change, but I don’t believe the show will ever be able to compensate for such a loss.”

The departure of a main character from a show is not an unprecedented occurrence, however, and the outcome hasn’t always been outright cancellation. Spin City starred Michael J. Fox for its first four years before the actor decided to leave due to his Parkinson’s disease.

However, instead of ending the show with Fox’s departure, Charlie Sheen took over. Spin City ran two more seasons after the change and proved a show can work after a major casting change.

Still, not all shows are lucky enough to survive such a shift. Scrubs ran for eight seasons while following the life of young doctor John Dorian, played by Zach Braff. After Braff’s departure, the series was prepared to end, and even aired what was assumed to be the series finale.

Nonetheless, network ABC decided to renew Scrubs for a ninth season, which featured a complete restructuring of the show and the addition of several new characters to the main cast. The ninth season proved to be both a critical and commercial flop, leading to a quick cancellation.

In an effort to avoid the same fate, the producers and writers of The Office have been given far more time to plan for the new season. In preparation, the seventh season has been structured to provide one last major story arc for Carell, leading to his departure later this year.

Showrunner Paul Lieberstein discussed the plans for the character’s departure in a recent interview.

“Steve [Carell] will have a number of episodes that dramatize and lead up to Steve leaving,” Lieberstein said. “Then we’ll continue on for about four more episodes, and the spring will prove to be not about an actor leaving, but what happens in an office when a manager leaves and the chaos ensues and people vie for the job and are uncertain about their future.”

After Carell’s departure, the factor left to consider is who will be cast as the new boss replacing Carell on the show. Numerous actors have been rumored since the news about Carell broke, including Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords), Harvey Keitel (Life on Mars), and Danny McBride (Eastbound and Down).

Tracey Leonard, a sophomore in philosophy, is skeptical that anyone will be able to bring the same energy and personality to the role of manager that Carell has.

“The show stands a much greater chance of failing when Carell leaves,” Leonard said, “unless the replacement is really good. There are loads of people who could be good, but many of them might be too well known to actually pull it off.”

As Carell’s departure approaches, it will be interesting to see where the narrative of the show will go, as well as who Carell’s replacement will be. As for how successful The Office will be after the loss of its leading man, viewers will have to wait until the 2011-2012 television season to find out.