Nicollette Sheridan is leaving "Desperate Housewives" just when she is being given the kind of meaty scenes that make Emmy Awards voters swoon. Over the first four seasons of "Desperate Housewives," Nicollette Sheridan was snubbed by Emmy voters each and every year — just like costar Eva Longoria Parker.

Their respective characters — Edie Britt and Gabrielle Solis — were the least sympathetic of the five original women of Wisteria Lane. For the first season, Felicity Huffman won an Emmy Award playing frazzled working mom Lynette Scavo while Teri Hatcher took home a Golden Globe for her work as lovable klutz Susan Mayer. Marcia Cross has racked up three Golden Globe nods and an Emmy bid for her brittle Bree Van De Kamp Hodge. Sheridan and Longoria have had to make do with single Golden Globe nods and sharing in two Screen Actors Guild ensemble awards.

This fifth season of "Desperate Housewives" was designed as a reboot, pushing the plot five years into the future. Both Edie and Gabrielle face challenges that give the actresses playing the parts a real chance to shine. Edie — who was banished from the street last year — returned with a new husband (Neal McDonough) in tow. Turns out Dave is an escaped looney and Edie may well be his next victim. Already, Edie has confronted him about his oddball behavior and she could well be setting herself up for a fall — literally. Nicollette Sheridan has shown a softer side to Edie and it will be a shame to see her go.

And Eva Longoria Parker has had to make us feel sympathy for the self-involved Gabrielle, who pouted about Carlos' blindness and pushed him to return to his old loathed job of investment banker when his sight returned. She too has had scenes that display a different facet of the character as the one-time model deals with motherhood and finding her old self in her new and unimproved body.

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