CBS Renews 18 Shows Inc ‘Seal Team’, ‘SWAT’, All ‘NCIS’s & ‘MacGyver’, Cancels 4 Inc ‘Man With A Plan’
CBS has taken the plunge and announced it’s renewals and cancellations for their current set of tv series.
The 18 renewed shows include the dramas ‘All Rise’, ‘Blue Bloods’, ‘Bull’, ‘FBI’, ‘FBI: Most Wanted’, ‘MacGyver’, ‘Magnum P.I.’, ‘NCIS’, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’, ‘NCIS: New Orleans’, ‘Seal Team’ and ‘S.W.A.T.’. The comedies include ‘Bob Hearts Abishola’, ‘The Neighborhood’ and ‘The Unicorn’, along with news shows ’60 Minutes’ and ’48 Hours’ and reality series ‘Undercover Boss’. They join previously renewed series ‘Evil’, ‘Mom’, ‘Young Sheldon’, ‘Survivor’ and ‘The Amazing Race’.
For UK viewers, we got off quite lightly on the cancellation side of things. The only show airing in the UK which got the chop was Matt LeBlanc’s comedy ‘Man with a Plan’, which ends after 4 Season. Also cancelled are the sitcom ‘Broke’, comedy ‘Carol’s Second Act’ starring Patricia Heaton, and the Edie Falco drama ‘Tommy’, none of which made it to this side of the pond. They join the previously cancelled ‘God Friended Me’, which also never made it to the UK.
“Thanks to these exceptional shows, we’re going to win the current season by 1 million viewers,” commented CBS president Kelly Kahl. “Next year, we’ll have these strong returning series as our foundation… and Super Bowl LV too. It’s a well-balanced lineup across Entertainment, News and Sports that will put us in an incredibly stable position for 2020-2021.”
It was rather unclear how the COVID-19 virus might affect the renewals and cancellations this year, but this seems like a clear sign from CBS that it is better to stick with what you know than plunge into the dark recesses of new pickups. They have already passed on a couple of pilots, including David E. Kelley drama ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ after it was originally ordered straight to series, and multi-camera comedy ‘Fun’. That still leaves a stack of pilots in contention, including the remake of ‘The Equalizer’ starring Queen Latifah, along with Chuck Lorre comedy ‘B Positive’ starring Thomas Middleditch (‘Silicon Valley’), which was the only pilot to be completed before the lockdown began.
The next few weeks would be when we traditionally hear about pilot pickups and get a look at these new shows. However as (nearly) nothing has been filmed due to the pandemic, it is likely we are a while off knowing what may or may not be picked up to series. We’ll let you know when we hear more.
