Why Steve Burns Left Blue's Clues

I, like many younger millennials, grew up on "Blue's Clues." Within a certain, significant demographic, it's a practically universal experience — the kind of ubiquitous cultural unifier that's increasingly difficult to find in the stratified digital age. And like so many, I watched as Steve Burns, the original star of the mostly animated, direct-address-to-audience-driven Nickelodeon children's show, walked away from it in the early 2000s, being replaced by Donovan Patton as Steve's younger brother, Joe.

In the wake of that departure, Burns became the favorite conspiracy target of an early Internet, with rumors of his demise and reasons for leaving the series — all greatly exaggerated — circulating constantly. Though he would occasionally pop back up in public to dispel these stories, he mostly kept his head down, with a handful of smaller musical and onscreen projects.

In more recent years, with the "Blue's Clues" revival series "Blue's Clues & You," Burns has more publicly embraced his legacy as a kids' TV icon, appearing several times on the show and its associated spin-off projects, while also working behind the scenes in various capacities. He's also spoken more openly about his original reasons for leaving the show — a decision he previously attributed more simply to him getting too old for the part, but which he now says had more to do with mental health issues and the built-up burnout they caused. While his work on the show was not the cause of these concerns, Burns says they made it difficult to continue in the joyful role of TV companion.

From 1996 to 2002, Steve Burns may as well have been the face of educational children's programming. And while that role gave him a great sense of fulfillment, both at the time and now in retrospect, he eventually decided to step away from "Blue's Clues" for personal reasons.

The aesthetics of growing up and losing his hair on a show where he played a perpetually youthful sort of character was part of the equation, Burns told Variety in a 2022 profile. "I wasn't going to be boyish anymore," he explained — both an acknowledgment of aging and a desire to move onto new things. But that wasn't the root of the choice. "I didn't know it yet, but I was the happiest depressed person in North America," Burns told Variety. "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."

After a time, that sense of burnout and his unaddressed drop in mental wellness took its toll. "I was always able to dig and find something that felt authentic to me that was good enough to be on the show," Burns explained, "but after years and years of going to the well without replenishing it, there was a cost." Looking back now, Burns told Variety that he can better appreciate the work he did on the show.

In the immediate aftermath of his "Blue's Clues" exit, Steve Burns started up a music career, with his debut indie rock album, "Songs for Dustmites," being released in 2003. One of the tracks from that record, "Mighty Little Man," later became the theme song of CBS's hit "Big Bang Theory" spin-off/prequel "Young Sheldon." Burns released another album of a similar style in 2009 and a children's album, "Foreverywhere," with Steven Drozd in 2017.

In more recent years, Burns has also returned to the world of "Blue's Clues," serving as a writer, director, and consulting producer on the revival series "Blue's Clues & You" since 2019. He's also made several appearances as an older Steve on certain episodes, movies and specials. You may have also heard his voice in various places over the years, as he continues to work as a VO performer and occasional onscreen actor.

Burns' journey to better awareness and wellness has become an authentic part of his modern image, as exemplified in a viral 2021 video from Nick Jr. where he briefly reprised the role of Steve to speak to his grown-up former viewers. "We started out with clues, and now it's what? Student loans, and jobs, and families, and some of it has been kind of hard" he said at the time in his classic direct-address style to the camera. "Look at all you have accomplished in all that time."

Earlier in 2025, Burns started the podcast "Alive with Steve Burns," which covers topics of wellness and culture with a gentle approach he told The New York Times he hoped could be "a counterpoint to the current manosphere." It feels like a fitting role. "It's very on brand for me to not have the answers," Burns told Variety in 2022. "But Steve became my role model. Because he was not afraid to ask for help."