Archie Panjabi leaving "The Good Wife"

"The Good Wife" fans will be saying goodbye to Archie Panjabi this season.

The actress, who has played Kalinda Sharma since the CBS drama premiered in 2009, is exiting the show when her contract expires at the end of season 6.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 42-year-old Emmy winner has signed a deal with 20th Century Fox Television that includes plans for her to star in a drama pilot for the studio in the spring.

"Archie is an amazing actress who helped build Kalinda from the ground up as an enigmatic, powerful, and sexy character," "The Good Wife" showrunners Robert and Michelle King said in a statement Wednesday. "It's been a pleasure to write for her, and we'll be sad to see her go; but we still have her for the rest of season six, so let's not exhaust our good-byes yet. We look forward to meeting all the wonderful new characters Archie brings to the screen. But either way, we're keeping the boots."

This isn't the first major character to depart "The Good Wife" -- Josh Charles' Will Gardner was killed off in a shocking turn of events last season.