Katherine Fugate News

Army Wives' chief officer has been removed from duty.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello reports that Katherine Fugate, creator of Lifetime's top-rated drama ever, has been shown the door.

"Army Wives is a fantastic tribute to the real life heroes serving in our armed forces and I'm so happy to have been a part of it," Fugate said.

"With the show such an established hit, now seems like a logical time for me to step away and focus on developing new projects."

Rumors of lingering behind-the-scenes tension between Fugate, Lifetime and ABC Studios have persisted pretty much since day one.

This is evidenced by the fact that Army Wives weathered three show-runner changes in less than two years (Season 2 is nearing its end).

The most recent Army Wives personnel switch came this spring, when Dee Johnson was relieved of duty and replaced by Nick Thiel.

In its own statement, ABC Studios said:

"Katherine Fugate is incredibly talented and we’re grateful for her work in creating Army Wives. We are very happy to have had the opportunity to work with her."

So what does this mean for Army Wives? Probably not much. Thiel has pretty much been running the show these past few months, and he's not going anywhere. An Army Wives source tells EW: "Everyone is very happy with Nick."

As many fans know, it was the book Under the Sabers by Tanya Biank that became the inspiration for the TV series Army Wives on Lifetime.

It was up to creator Katherine Fugate to adapt it to television.

What makes the series and Army Wives cast unique is how Fugate seamlessly weaves the theme of female empowerment into the show, with such a wonderful, interpersonal spin. She spoke about it in an interview with SheKnows.com ...

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The book is a non-fiction account of the murders at Fort Bragg, about the series of murders that took place in a six-week period, when four husbands came back and killed their wives at Fort Bragg over the summer.

I read that book and I was struck by what happened.

We wanted to create a fictional series and I’m always looking for things that are about female empowerment, sacrifice and the greater good.

I was really moved by the sacrifices that military wives make and I hadn’t really contemplated that before.

America understands and respects our soldiers so much, and there are a lot of shows already out there that take into account the battlefield and the sacrifice, but I don’t think people know just how far that spreads.

Mothers are becoming single mothers for two years at a time, and children are growing up in a culture that they didn’t choose.

Just like Roxy (Sally Pressman) didn’t choose it either. She married, fell in love with a man, and really married a whole tradition.

That really moved me and I thought that is something we hadn’t seen before. I wanted everyone to know that the sacrifice is not just on the soldier.

Continue reading this Katherine Fugate interview here ...