There was a surprise announcement yesterday that Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe are leaving NBC’s Parks and Recreation in the middle of the show’s upcoming sixth season. While there’s still no explanation for their departures, Parks showrunner/co-creator Mike Schur issued the following statement about the situation last night without really giving a reason for the change. As far as what their next moves are, Deadline reports that NBC is developing a new show for Lowe, and Jones and her writing partner signed a development deal with Warner Bros. in February to write and produce new shows.
Here’s Mike Schur’s statement:
“The news about Rob and Rashida is true – they will be leaving the show after the 13th episode of the upcoming season six.  We’ve been working on their storyline (on and off) for four seasons now, and heading into this year, with the two of them contemplating parenthood, it felt like a natural time to move them into the next phase.We absolutely love both Rashida and Rob, and will be sad to see them go. Rashida was one of the very first people we knew we wanted in the cast, and as important as Ann is to Leslie (and vice-versa), she’ll certainly never be far from Pawnee.  Rob we initially thought we could only have for six or eight episodes, and we couldn’t be happier that he will have stuck around for 75.They are wonderful, funny, committed actors, they’ve been a huge part of the Parks and Rec family, and we think we have a great Pawnee send-off in the works for them.â€