how to remove a specific section of a cell

For example if I have a 5:2 cell, each cell is filled with value. Is there a way to empty all the value in the 1st column except value in {1,1}

I tried this:

 a(2:,1) = []

but MATLAB says 'A null assignment can have only one non-colon index.'

Answer 1

[Andrei Bobrov]

a(2:end,1) = {[]};