As networks continue to make decisions on the 2024-2025 season, 2024 cancellation sweeps are happening, with more on the way. Whether a series is straight-up canceled or is given one final season, it doesn’t hurt any less. However, a final season does give the show a chance to have a proper conclusion, which is why multiple CBS shows are having final seasons this year including Blue Bloods and Young Sheldon. Even head honcho Amy Reisenbach hates it when show don’t get a proper ending.
The CBS president spoke to Deadline about the handful of shows getting final seasons and how the network came to that point as opposed to just canceling them without crafting an end. Echoing the feelings of many, Reisenbach shared her distaste for shows ending without any closure, hence why these final seasons are happening:
I’ll speak as a TV fan first, which is I hate when we don’t get to give shows proper endings. And I think that also speaks to our feeling of, let’s try to plan long-term as much as we can. It is a function of having a really strong schedule that we have to refresh and that means in order to refresh, shows have to eventually end.
Even if a show doesn’t get a proper final season, some do prepare ahead of time in case of a cancellation. Sometimes, a season finale is made to be like a series finale if a renewal doesn’t happen. There are some stories wrapped, and characters have closure with no cliffhanger, yet still leaving some doors open for another season.
That being said, it’s not just about giving the series closure to have a final season, but so the fans get what they so rightfully deserve as well, according to Reisenbach. While that may not always be the case, she does seem pretty set on making sure that whatever happens, a show gets a proper ending for both the characters and the fans:
Our goal is to always end them respectfully so that the audience gets the ending that they absolutely deserve because they’ve put in the time and they love these characters, as well as the cast and crews and writers.
CBS will be seeing the end of Young Sheldon, Bob Hearts Abishola, and Blue Bloods this year, and if not for the surprise renewal, S.W.A.T. was on that list, too, despite a pretty open finale. Since the network still has to make a few tough decisions on the remaining shows for next season, it’s still unknown if they will receive the same treatment. It does sound like Amy Reisenbach will likely do all she can to make sure whichever shows are canceled get a proper finale, but that’s definitely easier said than done. The good news is that, being a TV fan, she knows how it feels to be left wanting more, so who knows what could happen.
Fans will have to continue to patiently (or anxiously) wait on the fates of various shows on all networks and will have to prepare themselves because there will probably be at least a couple of cancellations on the horizon. Or, at the very least, have one or two more shows entering their final seasons later this year on the 2024 TV schedule.
