After The TV Bloodbath: What TV Shows Are Renewed, Cancelled, & Which Are MIA – May 2023 Edition
Welcome to “After The TV Bloodbath 2023”, our annual tradition of rounding up the renewed and cancelled tv series from the big five US networks as they head through “Upfronts” week, and present their new season of shows to their potential advertisers.
It has been an interesting “Bloodbath” season this year… more of a slow, drawn-out “bloodletting” over a number of weeks than the traditional single “Friday night massacre” we’ve seen in previous years. With the writers of Hollywood on strike, and the landscape of US network tv in flux, a couple of the networks had decided to forgo the usual upfront presentation entirely, whilst others are taking longer to make their final decisions. Generally, it was a far more civilised affair than we’ve seen in previous years, with a number of shows (although, definitely not all…) being given fair warning of their impending doom, allowing them to craft a suitable ending. Here is how the battles played out…
The Cancellations
As we survey the battle arena this year, there were surprisingly few unexpected casualties left to bleed out on the field. Yes, some beloved shows were struck down, but like in an old movie where the soldier tells a girl he’ll marry her when the war is over, there were early warning signs they wouldn’t return. That’s not to say that there weren’t a few surprises, with a couple of series switching sides, and some of the older warhorses finally succumbing to battle fatigue.
We begin with CBS, who had a very interesting set of skirmishes this year. They began by taking down ‘NCIS: Los Angeles‘ back in January, which at least gave the show time to write letters back to their families to say they wouldn’t be coming home. That was more recently followed by taking the axe to ‘True Lies‘ and ‘East New York‘, both new recruits last year who just failed to gain enough support from the onlooking audience. CBS did also make an attempt to take on the heavily armed team of ‘S.W.A.T.‘ officers… but soon realised that was a terrible mistake (more on that later)…
Over at ABC, they had been relatively sparing with their cancellations this year up until last week. Back in February 2023, they informed ‘The Goldbergs‘ of their impending doom, which gave the family enough time to get their affairs in order before the axe came down after ten seasons. They were similarly civil with ‘A Million Little Things‘, letting them know they would be facing the void back in November 2022. However, then last Friday rolled around, and the anthropomorphic murder mouse picked up his axe and cut down the former darling of the network ‘Big Sky‘ after 3 seasons, along with newcomers ‘Alaska Daily‘ and ‘The Company You Keep‘ after one season each.
NBC has also somewhat quelled its bloodlust in recent years. Where once it would take its scythe and plough through shows with not a care in the world, now it takes a much more civilised approach. ‘New Amsterdam‘ had already been informed of its terminal diagnosis during the 2022 Bloodbath, and in February 2023 they gave Reddington plenty of time to plot an elaborate exit strategy for ‘The Blacklist‘ after 10 seasons. They do still have a few shows left on the table but were extremely sparing in their culling, earning them the “fluffiest network” crown for 2023.
Over at FOX, they had probably the biggest shocks this year. The leading light of their lineup, ‘9-1-1‘, became too expensive, but rather than being burned at the stake, escaped back home to live another day (more on that later.) ‘The Resident‘ was not so lucky, as the doctors and nurses at Chastain Memorial Hospital found themselves fired, and their possessions being sold off! More recently, after three seasons of managing to fend off attacks, ‘Call Me Kat‘ and her kitten army was finally devoured by FOX, and all flights to ‘Fantasy Island‘ got cancelled after two seasons. Very early on, FOX also rejected ‘Monarch‘ before it had even finished airing its first season.
Then we come to The CW… The network which, for years with WB and Paramount as its commanding officers, was the fluffiest of networks, almost always giving shows a chance to end on their own terms… However, last year, they were in the process of being sold to new owners Nexstar and performed what ‘The Vampire Diaries’ showrunner, Julie Plec, referred to as their “The CW’s Red Wedding”, murdering half the scripted content on the network. For those series left standing, some – such as ‘The Flash‘, ‘Riverdale‘, ‘Stargirl‘ and ‘Nancy Drew‘ – were given enough time to put their affairs in order before they face the firing squad. However, ‘Kung Fu‘, ‘The Winchesters‘ and ‘Walker Independence‘ got no such warning, with all three shows being mowed down last Thursday evening.
The Renewals
After all the bloodshed, we move to welcome home the surviving shows as they ride into a ticker-tape parade of renewals and victory. Here are the series we know are coming back.
CBS were pretty generous with their early renewals this year, bringing back ‘CSI: Vegas‘, ‘Bob Hearts Abishola‘, ‘Equalizer‘, ‘Ghosts (US)‘, ‘FBI‘, ‘FBI: International‘, ‘FBI: Most Wanted‘, ‘Fire Country‘, ‘NCIS‘, ‘NCIS: Hawaii‘, ‘So Help Me Todd‘, ‘The Neighborhood‘, and ‘Young Sheldon‘. They were later joined by ‘Blue Bloods‘, albeit with the cast and crew taking a pay cut to secure the new season of the ageing show. Then we come to ‘S.W.A.T.‘… CBS tried to cancel the series, but after a huge amount of backlash, soon realised that taking on LAPD SWAT is no easy task, and within days, performed a u-turn and renewed the drama for one more final season.
On ABC, they gave early renewals to both the critically-acclaimed ‘Abbott Elementary‘, which returns for Season 3, and the long-running medical drama ‘Grey’s Anatomy‘. Those were joined a little later by ‘The Rookie‘, which returns for Season 6, ‘Will Trent‘ which gets a 2nd Season, and ‘Grey’s’ sibling show, ‘Station 19‘, which lands a 7th Season. In addition to all of their current shows, they gave a home to ‘9-1-1‘, which returns for Season 7. The series, which is made by Disney’s 20th Television, had become too costly to keep for FOX, and so will now air on ABC instead. Whilst the series is saved, it makes future crossovers with ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ “extremely unlikely” (well… until FOX decided that show is also too expensive, and gets moved to ABC too!) Finally, earlier this week, they gave renewals both ‘Not Dead Yet‘, and ‘The Conners‘.
NBC had already secured the services of ‘Magnum, PI‘ for 2 Seasons when they swiped the drama from CBS last year, so was already renewed. That was joined by the ‘Quantum Leap‘ reboot which landed a Season 2 renewal in December 2022, and ‘Night Court‘ which got a Season 2 renewal in February 2023. The wonderfully bonkers ‘La Brea‘ landed its Season 3 renewal in January 2023, however, it later became apparent that it is likely to only be six episodes long and a final season for the sci-fi drama. Negotiations with procedural drama overlord, Dick Wolf, took a little longer to iron out, but by April 2023, all of the ‘Law & Order’ and ‘Chicago’ franchises landed new seasons.
While FOX had a few shocks in their cancellations, they did also renew a stack of series early, mainly on their animation slate. ‘The Simpsons‘, ‘Family Guy‘ and ‘Bob’s Burgers‘ were all renewed in January for 2 more seasons each, and were later joined by 2nd Seasons for new animated series ‘Krapopolis’, ‘Animal Control’, and ‘Grimsburg’, alongside ‘The Great North‘, which was renewed up to Season 4. On the live-action side, they gave an early renewal in February 2023 to ‘The Cleaning Lady‘ for Season 3, and more recently handed new shows ‘Accused‘ and ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit‘ 2nd Seasons. Whilst it is now separated from its parent show which moves to ABC, ‘9-1-1: Lone Star‘ will return for Season 5 on FOX.
Following The CW‘s murderous rampage, a couple of series did actually manage to make it back from battle. ‘All American‘ is back for Season 6, and Jared Padalecki-led drama ‘Walker‘ will return for Season 4. However, there are a number of shows across the networks which are still in limbo, so that leads us to…
Still Missing In Action
Due to a number of factors the amount of shows still MIA at this point is a little higher than normal. With the WGA Strike ongoing, and networks looking to cut costs, they are taking longer to figure out how best to move forward.
Firstly, The CW is not holding an Upfront at all this year, meaning there isn’t as much of a rush to decide the fate of their three remaining scripted shows – ‘Superman & Lois‘, ‘Gotham Knights‘, and ‘All American: Homecoming‘. There is some suggestion that IF (and that is very much an “IF”…) new owners Nexstar are going to retain any of these shows, it would likely be ‘All American: Homecoming‘ (to run alongside the already renewed parent show), and one of the two DC series. Given ‘Superman & Lois‘ has much higher ratings, you’d think that would be the pick, however, it is also substantially more expensive than ‘Gotham Knights‘. If (again, big “IF”) The CW do opt to go with ‘Gotham Knights‘, there is a possibility that ‘Superman & Lois‘ could be moved over to the MAX streaming service by Warner Bros Discovery, as its numbers could potentially justify the move… or they could decide to ditch it entirely. You do also have to factor in how this fits in with the new Gunn/Safran-led DC Studios, and whether they want to keep around a show unconnected to the main DC Cinematic Universe that features Superman when Gunn is about to reboot the character on the big screen. Having said all that, CW boss, Brad Schwartz, has said that ‘Superman & Lois‘ is the strongest show out of the three, and they will be making a decision on them “sooner than later”.
CBS also skipped their Upfront but has renewed or cancelled all of their shows, so we move to NBC, which still has three comedies waiting to hear their fate – ‘Grand Crew‘, ‘Young Rock‘, and ‘American Auto‘. At this point in time, it’s really difficult to say which way NBC will go on these three, and they are very much still “on the bubble”. ‘Grand Crew’ is the lowest-rated scripted show on the network, but ‘American Auto’ is not far above it. ‘Young Rock’ may stand a chance despite its ratings, purely based on keeping a star like Dwayne Johnson on the network, at least for one more season.
FOX only has one show left to decide, and that’s ‘Welcome to Flatch’, the US version of the British show ‘This Country’. Its ratings are pretty awful but is produced under a cheaper co-production model, which has saved it before. But then, ‘Fantasy Island’ was also low-rated and worked under a cheaper model, and they canned that… The bosses at FOX have said they will make a decision on the series once the Writer’s Strike ends.
Lastly, we have ABC. The House Of The Mouse has two shows left – ‘Home Economics‘ and ‘The Rookie: Feds‘. Both shows have fairly modest, but respectable ratings. ‘The Rookie: Feds’, which is only on Season 1, has some potential to grow as it airs alongside its parent show. ‘Home Economics’ is on its 3rd Season, and may have hit its peak in terms of numbers. The contract options for the casts expire at the end of June, so ABC has until then to make a decision.
There will still be a lot more news about the various new series pickups (check the home page!) and some more renewals & cancellations over the next few weeks and months as the US networks get all their ducks (or mice and peacocks) in a row. You can also check the premiere dates for these shows on our UK TV Air Dates page, and our USA TV Premiere Dates pages. Lastly, you can track any show on the site by adding it via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.
