House ended last season by firing three of the regular cast members. Don't worry though, nobody's going anywhere. Fox brought the entire cast of House out to do press, confirming that Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer would be returning. Executive producer Katie Jacobs then assured fans that they wouldn't just magically appear having made up over the summer.
Jacobs on House
"I think that their three-year fellowship, and all in different ways, has sort of naturally come to an end," said Jacobs. "In the first episode, House is alone and House is trying to solve cases by himself. Of course, Cuddy is pissed and Wilson thinks he's losing his mind. Cuddy will insist, and ultimately win, that he hire a new team. But he will do it in a very Houseian way. So essentially, the truth is, over the first bunch of episodes he's going to call in all the candidates, all the resumes on his desk. 40, I think it is. A large number. And we're going to see who survives. We're going to play a House version of Survivor and see what candidates really will make the best part of House's team."
While the former team is all working their new jobs, fans will get to meet new supporting characters whom House can torture. "The great thing about it is, and the great fun for us is that they are all qualified doctors but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are a great candidate for House. House is looking for something other than that. So we're having a lot of fun exploring all of that. These guys are coming back with the benefit of having worked with House. So it expands the world of the hospital in a really great and organic way. House obviously is going to get the cream of the crop in terms of candidates, but what makes a doctor interesting to House is sort of different. A veterinarian might be interesting to House or House might be interested in someone that he can't quite get a handle on. Just sort of thinking about what combinations, although House has fun at anybody's expense. So it was really fun to think about what House would find a valuable quality."
Some of the new candidates from other field of medicine should provide episode plots that will excite the fans. "One of our characters, played by Peter Jacobson, is a New York plastic surgeon who was very successful. Why is he giving up plastic surgery to come and potentially be one of House's fellows? What House discovers about him is, having done plastic surgery, he has amazing insights into human behavior. Kal Penn is playing, we came up with this idea of a young doctor who has a very cool procedure but doesn't know necessarily how to get there. He would react very differently to House's ideas. He thinks everything is cool and big."
And just how House humiliates them is so simple it's brilliant. "House is going to give all the candidates numbers because he can't remember their names. They're actually going to wear running numbers. So it was great to see them all walking around in their lab coats, trying to maintain a certain sense of dignity while wearing [these]."
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