Sussman was technically still under a contract with ABC due to his rotating guest role on the short-lived series Ugly Betty. The actor has since explained that ABC producers had already written him out of the show and given him their verbal blessing that he was free to explore new opportunities at the time, so he felt that there would be no legal debacle about joining the cast of The Big Bang Theory.

Instead, execs at ABC decided to be petty, and seemingly intentionally mishandled Sussman’s contract for no reason other than to block his success and jam up the casting process of the burgeoning CBS hit. Depending on who you ask specifically, this contract issue can be seen as a simple oversight or a “jerk move.”