CBS Renew/Cancel Week 26: Final Four Voting + Did Blue Bloods Just Get Its Last Ever Renewal?

 

Welcome to Week 26 of CBS Renew/Cancel! This is the actual Week 26 column (if you missed the April Fools edition featuring one-and-done shows from recent seasons, you can find that here.) 

Since Week 25, Blue Bloods moves from Leans Renew to Renewed. Here is the updated table for Week 26:


Blue Bloods

The renewal of Blue Bloods for a 14th season reportedly came with the cast and producers taking a 25% pay cut. This includes series lead Tom Selleck. Blue Bloods is a solid performer for CBS, although this season hasn’t looked quite as strong as many past seasons due to the strength of Fire Country. The Season 14 renewal was well deserved, as a show that has run as long as Blue Bloods does not deserve to be abruptly canceled. 

Given the 25% pay cut and the fact CBS has Fire Country working on Friday nights now, one could be tempted to believe next season will be the final season of Blue Bloods. If so, it would be nice if they could somehow do a 25 episode season and get Blue Bloods to 300 episodes. Had it not been for the abbreviated Season 11 due to COVID, Blue Bloods would easily hit the milestone with its 14th season. Either way, fans should celebrate Blue Bloods getting a 14th season. This was clearly the show’s toughest renewal to date, and very well may have been its last. 

S.W.A.T.
Now that Blue Bloods is renewed, either CBS is bucking the recent trend with canceling a Friday drama, or they are about to cancel S.W.A.T. It’s kind of a miracle S.W.A.T. even made it to a sixth season. It struggled in its third and fourth seasons on Wednesdays against Chicago Fire, and was sent to Sundays at 10 pm at the start of its fifth season. It’s very rare a show moves to Sundays at 10 on CBS and doesn’t get canceled in the same time slot. 

S.W.A.T. has found an audience on Fridays, but the fact Paramount only has partial distribution rights and that they would need to renegotiate contracts with the cast for a seventh season seems to be complicating its path to renewal. S.W.A.T. deserved to be renewed a long time ago on a Live + Same Day ratings basis, but its chances for renewal get more complicated every time another show gets renewed instead. I am keeping it in Tilts Cancel for now, but a downgrade to Leans Cancel may be in its future. At this point, I would be mildly yet pleasantly surprised if S.W.A.T. gets renewed. 

CBS Renew/Cancel March Madness Final Four Voting
It’s now time to vote in the Final Four for CBS Renew/Cancel March Madness! First, here is the bracket including the final scores from the Elite Eight matchups. 


1 Seed Young Sheldon vs 4 Seed Fire Country
Young Sheldon is the 1 seed in this tournament, and has made it to the Final Four as is expected of 1 seeds, assuming they live up to their seedings. Despite the two shows having almost identical vote totals in the Sweet Sixteen, Young Sheldon blew out FBI: International in the Elite Eight by a score of 17 to 7 in what was by far the matchup with the least votes overall. 

Fire Country made it to the Final Four in a section of the bracket with no upsets; the 4 seed beat the 13 seed, the 5 seed beat the 12 seed, and then the 4 seed beat the 5 seed. It cruised past The Neighborhood by a tally of 31 to 9, an outcome that was expected based on Sweet Sixteen voting. 

Despite seedings, past rounds of voting indicate that Fire Country enters this matchup as the frontrunner. It got the second-most votes in both of the last two rounds. Can Young Sheldon live up to its seeding and make the final matchup? Vote for the show you would most like to see advance to the finals!

18 Seed NCIS: Los Angeles vs 3 Seed FBI
NCIS: Los Angeles had to go through one more round of voting than every other show that made it to the Elite Eight, given it is the only scripted show CBS has canceled this season to date. It has not been in a competitive matchup so far, blowing by 15 seed S.W.A.T. in the play-in round, 2 seed Ghosts in the Sweet Sixteen, and 7 seed NCIS in the Elite Eight. By beating NCIS of all shows by a score of 42 to 11, NCIS: Los Angeles demonstrated it is a force to be reckoned with, and has been the top vote-getter in each of the past three rounds. 

With FBI advancing to the Final Four, three of the top four seeded shows made it to the Final Four. This makes NCIS: Los Angeles the only upset that is still standing. Based on the past two rounds, FBI is a big underdog in this matchup, getting no closer than 20 votes away from NCIS: Los Angeles’ vote total in either of the two rounds that both shows have participated in. As expected from the Sweet Sixteen vote totals, FBI beat NCIS: Hawai’i to get to this matchup, stopping NCIS: Los Angeles from going head-to-head with another NCIS show for the second straight round. 

One of NCIS: Los Angeles and FBI is making it to the finals and playing the winner of Young Sheldon vs Fire Country for the championship. Vote for which one you would like it to be!


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