Some of the most popular Glee kids are leaving the show (or in TV terms, graduating)

According to Glee creator Ryan Murphy, all good things must come to an end. Don’t go into hysterics just yet, or break out into an unnecessary ballad, because the show will continue, but without Lea Michele’s neurotic Rachel Berry, Canadian Cory Monteith’s heavily Auto-Tuned Finn Hudson and Chris Colfer’s Kurt Hummel. CNN’s Marquee blog reports that when Murphy broke the news, he claimed, “You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic, or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year.” We’re sure the reason fans are tuning in every week is for the realism.

Images: Lea Michele and Chris Colfer by David Shankbone, Cory Monteith by Greg Hernandez