'One Tree Hill' Stars Jana Kramer and Bethany Joy Lenz Talk 'Divided' Cast, Huge Roadblock to Reboot

Reboots are all the rage in Hollywood these days, but don't look for a "One Tree Hill" revival or reboot announcement anytime soon.

Series co-stars Bethany Joy Lenz and Jana Kramer talked about their time on the show, the "divided" cast and the huge roadblock standing in the way of a reboot on Kramer's podcast "Whine Down with Jana Kramer."

"It was hard for us, because I felt like when we came on the show, just being so honest, it was a very divided set," Kramer said. "I feel like everyone already had their places and it was either, 'Are you going to be in the A team or the B team?' It was just tricky."

While she didn't elaborate, it's worth noting that Kramer joined the show in 2009, becoming a main cast-member in Season 7. Lenz, meanwhile, was one of the main characters from the beginning. "One Tree Hill" ran for nine seasons from 2003 to 2012.

Kramer continued, suggesting that disgraced creator and showrunner Mark Schwahn is at least partly to blame for the dysfunctional set. "I think our creator kinda created that environment, as well. I don't know what he's doing now. But that was probably the hardest part about [the show]."

Schwahn has been accused of inappropriate behavior on-set from cast-members of both "One Tree Hill" and his more recent series "The Royals," from which he was fired in 2017. Schwahn has not publicly responded to the allegations.

As for a revival, Schwahn is the biggest roadblock on that front as well. "The problem is the creator of the show, on any incarnation of the show [would get compensated]," Lenz said. "That's a big issue, and I think that would be the big thing standing in the way. Unless, he was willing to donate it all or something."

Doing so would be following in the footsteps of Roseanne Barr, who gave up her rights to the characters created for "Roseanne," thus allowing ABC to go ahead with "The Conners" spinoff without paying the comedian anything. Barr came under fire and was ultimately fired from her show's revival for a racist tweet.

If they could work out what to do about Schwahn, Lenz feels they would have a great environment today.

"It would be great to go back and not have it feel like it was divided in any way or when we were going through a rough patch," she said. "I think we're all just older now and it's so much easier to really enjoy each other's company and enjoy showing up at work, appreciate having a job, appreciate being some place we know we have such a huge fan-base."

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