SWAT Un-cancelled! CBS Renewed Drama For 7th & Final Season
It seems CBS has had a change of heart (and was probably getting sick of the abuse on social media!), and have u-turned on their cancellation of ‘SWAT‘. The drama will now return for a 7th and final season.
“We have listened to our viewers and their outpouring of passion for S.W.A.T. and we have reached an agreement to renew it for a final season of 13 episodes to air during the 2023-2024 broadcast year,” said Amy Reisenbach, President, CBS Entertainment, and Katherine Pope, President, Sony Pictures Television Studios in a joint statement. “S.W.A.T. has aired for six seasons on CBS and garnered a devoted following. We are pleased that we found a way to bring it back and give closure to the show’s storylines and characters, which audiences deserve. Once again, we appreciate the talents and efforts of the cast, writers, producers and crew and everyone who has contributed to the success of S.W.A.T. We look forward to its return next season.”
Inspired by the television series and the feature film, ‘S.W.A.T.’ stars Shemar Moore as a former Marine and locally born and raised S.W.A.T. sergeant, tasked to run a specialized tactical unit that is the last stop in law enforcement in Los Angeles. Torn between loyalty to where he was raised and allegiance to his brothers in blue, Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson strives to bridge the divide between his two worlds. The series also starred Alex Russell (Jim Street), Kenny Johnson (Dominique Luca), Jay Harrington (David Kay), David Lim (Victor Tan), Patrick St. Esprit (Robert Hicks), and Rochelle Aytes (Nichelle Carmichael).
Following the original cancellation, series lead, Shemar Moore, hit out at CBS pointing out that not only had they done “everything that was asked for”, regarding viewing numbers, but also his frustration at the fact the network had been telling them for weeks before they would at least get a final season to say goodbye. Thankfully, that has now happened. He ended his comments by saying “I don’t think we’re done. CBS is either gonna wake up and realize they made a mistake. Sony is gonna do their math and realize that this is not the right move.” He was right.
The cancellation was never about rating, but money. Six seasons in, the show is expensive to make and is also a co-production between Sony Pictures TV and CBS Studios. The two studios were struggling to find a way to make the books balance for both of them. Whilst Season 7 will be the final season, and will be shorter than normal, at least they will have the opportunity to round the drama off in a satisfactory way.
Following the news of the renewal, Moore posted to social media saying “Ayyeee!!!!! We did it #SWATFAM!!! @swatcbs is coming back for a 7th and Final season with 13 Episodes!!! Thank you to all of you for the continued and amazing support!!”
Whilst shows getting un-cancelled does sometimes happen, it’s usually when a series is picked up or moved to another network. It’s much rarer for a series to be re-commissioned on the same network, and almost unheard of for it to happen so quickly! Whether it was realising they made a mistake, or CBS thought it was a safer bet than trying to get a new series off the ground in the middle of the current writer’s strike, the outcome is still the same. ‘SWAT’ is back from one final season!
‘SWAT‘ Season 6 is currently airing Sky Max in UK and CBS in the USA.
