Burke Not Expected Back for 'Women' : Television: The actress will be dropped from her Emmy-winning role, sources say. 'Saturday Night Live's' Jan Hooks is a likely replacement.

Burke Not Expected Back for ‘Women’ : Television: The actress will be dropped from her Emmy-winning role, sources say. ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ Jan Hooks is a likely replacement.

By SHARON BERNSTEIN

June 8, 1991 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Actress Delta Burke will probably not return to the CBS comedy “Designing Women” this fall, according to sources at the network and on the actress’ staff. Burke had feuded with the show’s executive producers last year.

Burke, who is in Europe filming a television movie, could not be reached for comment, but a spokeswoman for her said that Columbia Pictures Television, which produces the show, and CBS have indicated that the actress, who won an Emmy Award in the series as Suzanne Sugarbaker, will not be rehired for another season.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. June 10, 1991 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Monday June 10, 1991 Home Edition Calendar Part F Page 4 Column 3 Entertainment Desk 1 inches; 27 words Type of Material: Correction
No Emmy--In some editions of Saturday’s Times, Delta Burke was incorrectly credited as having won an Emmy Award for her role in “Designing Women.” She has been nominated for an Emmy but has not won.

“Unofficially, we have been led to believe that she’s not returning to the show,” the spokeswoman said. However, she said, Burke has not been formally notified that such a change is in the works.

Adding to the likelihood was the fact that industry sources said actress Jan Hooks, a five-season veteran of “Saturday Night Live,” had been released from her contract with the late-night variety show in order to join the cast of “Designing Women.”

Executive producers Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason refused to say Friday whether Burke is staying or leaving.

“The future of ‘Designing Women’ is currently being discussed by all of the interested parties,” their publicist, Cheryl Kagan, said in a prepared statement. “The policy at this point is not to make a statement until there is a joint announcement.”

The change reportedly was being made by the network and the studio at the behest of the Thomasons, who have had a tempestuous relationship with Burke. Last year, Burke publicly accused the Thomasons of haranguing her about her weight and abusing her on the set. She told the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel that the set of “Designing Women” “is not a good workplace, not a good environment,” and threatened to leave the series. The Thomasons responded by accusing the actress of unprofessional behavior and asserting that she had been suspended for one week in October, 1989.

Neither Hooks nor her representatives would comment Friday about her future. She joined the “Saturday Night Live” cast in 1986 and has appeared in the features “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and “Wild Cats.” She also starred in the Turner Broadcasting series “Tush.”