Mayim Bialik Learned of Leslie Jordan’s Death While on Set for ‘Call Me Kat’

Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik has opened up about the moment she and her Call Me Kat co-stars found out Leslie Jordan had passed away.

Appearing on The Jennifer Hudson Show on Tuesday, April 4, Bialik revealed that she and the team were on the set of the Fox sitcom when they learned the tragic news that Jordan had died in a car crash.

“It was a sudden thing, we were all at work and waiting for him to show up at work, so it was very, very, very complicated to have the whole crew there and the whole cast,” the Big Bang Theory alum stated.

“You know, we were a family,” she continued. “And we were one of the first shows back after the lockdown, so we were all in our homes, and then the people we got to spend the most time with was each other, so we kind of became this little COVID unit… so we were all very close.”

Lisa Rose/FOX

“People knew Leslie Jordan as Leslie Jordan, not necessarily just as the character that he played on our show,” Bialik explained to Hudson. “He’s been in people’s lives, especially during COVID. He was in people’s Instagram feeds… a lot of people really formed a real connection with him, and he loved that. He loved being approachable. He loved being loved.”

Hudson told Bialik that the way Call Me Kat honored Jordan’s memory and legacy was “beautiful.” Jordan’s final episode aired in December and saw his character Phil finally finding love with his new boyfriend Jalen (John Griffin). The show later aired a send-off episode that featured Jordan’s former The Cool Kids castmate Vicki Lawrence as Phil’s mom.

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“When he passed, you know, it’s hard to find a group of people so unanimous about something so quickly,” Bialik said. “We all said, ‘We wanted him to live forever.’ It’s a really hard thing to do; there’s no right way to do it… How do you grieve also while having to act as people grieving?”

“It’s been hard, and we’re grateful to have gotten the opportunity to work with him the way we did and the time of his life we got to work with him.”

The Jennifer Hudson Show, Check local listings, Syndication

Call Me Kat, Season 3, Thursdays, 9:30/8:30c, Fox