Blue's Clues star Steve Burns explains choice to leave the show 20 years later

Blue's Clues brings back many childhood memories for a lot of us, with Steve Burns being a familiar face on our TV screens.

The popular kids' TV show ran on Nickelodeon from 1996 to 2006, but Burns left the show in 2002, leaving a massive hole in the popular series.

He was replaced by his brother Joe for the final four years of the programme.

Twenty years later, Burns has opened up on the reason he decided to leave the show in an interview with Variety.

Talking about the end of his time at Blue's Clues, he said: "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."

Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

Thankfully, Burns has said he is now in a better place, but he admitted it took him a while to recover.

"My strategy had been: ‘Hey, you got a great thing going, so just fight it,'" he said.

"Turns out, you don’t fight depression; you collect it. After I left Blue’s Clues there was a long period of healing.

"It wasn’t until the death of my father that I really started to take things seriously, and my life became so much more manageable."

Looking back, Burns admitted he wishes he sought help for his mental health struggles while he was on the show.

But he did add that he doesn't think that would have meant he continued presenting Blue's Clues.

He said: "But I would have been able to throw my arms around the role, and relax into it a little more. Because now, when I look back, all I see is what an impossible gift that was."

Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo

Since Burns left the role twenty years ago, he hasn't been able to keep a low-profile as on more than one occasion, reports have come out saying he was dead.

In 2015, a news outlet ran a story saying Burns had died in a car crash, while others suggested he had a heroin overdose.

Because of this, Burns had to keep on making media appearances to confirm that he was still alive.

Topics: TV and Film

Callum Jones

@CallumJ2709