CBS has monopolized the Renew/Cancel action in recent weeks sparing the majority of its worthy shows while leaving a handful at the mercy of their knife ready to cull the schedule. CBS played the classic drinking game of Marry One, Screw One, Kill One with four of its shows. It married The Neighborhood for a final season, which was a smart, pragmatic decision. While the series is increasing in expenses, it has remained a faithful utility player on Monday nights, which were destroyed to ruins the year it debuted in 2018. When ratings held more relevance, The Neighborhood came in strong, often matching or besting fellow strong sitcom Young Sheldon and helped rebuild a ruined evening. The series also holds potential for spinoffs, which appears to be the next direction and why CBS chose to invest. A show which delivered so strongly deserved some title and a proper sendoff.
With a commitment in place to Neighborhood, CBS had the tougher choice of which of the six shows to be wicked and dastardly to in order to free up the schedule for new inventory. FBI: Most Wanted showed signs it would meet the blade of the knife so when it met its demise, but the shocker rested in it met its ending along with its fellow spinoff FBI: International. CBS didn't seek to kill off these shows, but rather screw NBC/Universal where they had roots. Outsourced and Co-Productions are costly in today's stingy television climate, and the two for one ousting demonstrates CBS has a long history of cleaning house and removing multiple players despite solid performances. Their earliest example was the Rural Purge in 1971 which took out The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Mayberry RFD and Hee Haw in one shocking massacre. The phrase CBS may have used to end its awkward Universal relationship was "It's not you, it's me."
Finally, CBS had to kill off a show. Not in the manner a soap would as a character comes back from the dead when the ratings flatten. No, this time, it gave SWAT a permanent wound after trying to kill it off the last two seasons. In truth, a renewal for SWAT seemed to be a longshot as it concludes it's 8th season, which is considered an extremely long run in today's television climate. And CBS secured its Blue Bloods Spinoff, Boston Blue Monster for Fridays at 10:00. This left few to no options for CBS to continue to invest in SWAT despite having a working relationship with Shemar Moore which is now in its 4th decade. Fans and Moore are understandably upset by this series ending, but ought to take some solace in the series defied cancellation not twice, but as early as the 4th season. And that 8th season also derived from CBS was left in tatters following the disastrous 2023 strikes which left fewer options and gave higher priority to keeping SWAT and Blue Bloods a little longer. Moore has been understandably vocal as no one wishes to be out of work, especially as he delivered 11-year runs on daytime soap Young and the Restless and on Criminal Minds. The best fans can hope for is CBS wisely keeps the dialogue moving with Moore and perhaps they could craft another successful series for him to headline.
CBS' tough decisions have led to some bitterness with fans. However, they have proven to be the kindest and offer more opportunities for scripted series than their competitors. And they have the embarrassment of riches to show for it over six evenings of programming. Unlike FOX, which has delivered underwhelmingly and leaned on unscripted series, CBS commits to classic television with scripted content taking priority. To keep the classic feel going, they need to result to classic housekeeping, which means sharpening their blades and cutting shows off the schedule to leave life for fresh programming. Their model is more desirable than other networks which clog up opportune nights with aging franchise (this means you NBC), bastardizing its hit shows behind inferior reality TV (looking at you ABC and your Bachelor knockoffs) or regressing to becoming a joke of a network like their earlier years (nothing like a classic FOX dunking like folks delivered in the early 1990's.
Is CBS the most put together network among the players? Sound off and let it rip!
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