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Why did Steve Burns quit Nickelodeon show? Ex 'Blues Clues' host recalls how people thought he had DIED

'I was struggling with severe clinical depression the whole time I was on that show. It was my job to be utterly and completely full of joy,' recollects Steve Burns

Actor and television host Steve Burns, best known as the original host of the long-running children's preschool television show ‘Blue's Clues’ from 1996 until 2002, has finally revealed the reason behind his departure from the show. In a conversation with Variety, he told, "I was struggling with severe clinical depression the whole time I was on that show."

Burns said in the interview published on November 16, "I didn't know it yet, but I was the happiest depressed person in North America. I was struggling with severe clinical depression the whole time I was on that show. It was my job to be utterly and completely full of joy and wonder at all times, and that became impossible. I was always able to dig and find something that felt authentic to me that was good enough to be on the show but after years and years of going to the well without replenishing it, there was a cost. My strategy had been: ‘Hey, you got a great thing going, so just fight it!' Turns out, you don't fight depression; you collect it. After I left Blue's Clues, there was a long period of healing."

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He said there were conspiracy theories that he had died, either by car crash or heroin overdose. “I was under the working assumption that most of y’all thought I was dead,” he said. “That rumor was so persistent and so indelible that I assumed it was a cultural preference. I eventually just took the hint. I kept my head down and left public life.” The actor mentioned that the major turning point took place in his life when his father passed away in the year 2015 after a battle with cancer. "I care for him while he was dying of cancer, and it changed me. It made me think about things I hadn't thought about, like legacy and the value of the things we've left behind. It forced me to reevaluated and take much more seriously my mental health," he described and also added that he is making a comeback into Blue's Clues for movie 'Blue's Big City Adventure,' which will be released on November 18 on Paramount+. He said, "I've never enjoyed being Steve more than I do now. I get to wear a trenchcoat. It's like Grover-meets-Columbo—a clown character. That's really freeing somehow."

Talking further, he said he now travels to colleges to speak to students about mental health. "It’s very on brand for me to not have the answers. Steve was the guy who needed you. He doesn’t appear like a role model. He had difficulty differentiating between shapes and colors. But Steve became my role model. Because he was not afraid to ask for help, Burns concluded.

Following the update by Burns, Twitter broke out and one of many came in support of him and said, "I sincerely hope that brother found some peace and happiness. He deserves as much for all the joy he brought so many kids." Another commented, "He deserves better after raising an entire generation." While an individual commented, "who even came up with those rumors, thats so cruel, glad hes doing well."

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