Losing Isaiah

Back in Jersey, and it looks from a skim of TV Tattle that a whole lotta stuff went down while I was in the air. Not surprised but pleased to see "Earl," "The Office" and "Heroes" get full-season pick-ups for next year, and only mildly surprised that "Idol" was even bigger than ever in the numbers. (People love the freakshow.) And it looks like my Trump/Rosie proposal was as futile as I expected it to be.

The one bit of news I want to talk about began before I left California: the latest round in the Isaiah Washington-T.R. Knight kerfuffle. Shonda and ABC have done their best to manage the problem to date, but it sounds like things have escalated beyond their control. So, two questions:

1)Given how public and ugly this has become, is there any way that both Washington and Knight will be on the show next year?

2)If not, is there any way that Washington won't be the one to go?

In terms of 1, I think we're past the point of no return. There have been TV shows where the leads couldn't stand each other ("Moonlighting," to name a classic), but the viciousness has rarely become this public. Something has to be done, and I think it's the bouncing of Washington. He wasn't even the first choice to play Burke (Paul Adelstein, aka Kellerman from "Prison Break," had the part but couldn't get out of a movie commitment), one of the character's more interesting facets (his friendship with George) is being wiped out by real-world factors, and they already have Brooke Smith on hand as a replacement heart surgeon (if not as a new love interest for Sandra Oh). George, meanwhile, is one of the show's most popular characters, and T.R. Knight is the victim in all this.

Am I wrong? Does Isaiah remain employed next season?