CBS’ drama SWAT will live for one more season after the network reversed course on canceling the series.
Three days after announcing SWAT would end with its sixth season, which wraps on May 19, the network on Monday picked up a final season. The series, a co-production between Sony Pictures TV and CBS Studios, will now get a seventh and final season on CBS. It will run for 13 episodes.
SWAT would likely have gone down as the most watched network show to get the axe this season (Fox is saying goodbye to 911, which draws a larger audience, but that series will live on at ABC). The cancellation on Friday stirred outcry among the show’s viewers and star Shemar Moore, who called the move “a fucking mistake” in an Instagram video over the weekend.
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“We have listened to our viewers and their outpouring of passion for SWAT and we have reached an agreement to renew it for a final season of 13 episodes to air during the 2023-2024 broadcast year,” CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach and Sony Pictures TV Studios president Katherine Pope said in a joint statement. “SWAT 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 SWAT. We look forward to its return next season.”
In his Instagram video, Moore noted that while he’s called CBS home for most of his career, he was “calling them out” over the cancellation. “I’m upset because I busted my whole entire ass to prove that I could do this, and I did prove that I could do this,” he said. “I understand it’s not personal — it’s business — but I still have faith that SWAT will live to see another day.”
Executive producer Shawn Ryan told The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 podcast in March that the changing nature of the TV business was making what would have been an easy renewal in the past more uncertain: “You would never see that situation 15 years ago,” he said. … There’s no reason why the show shouldn’t be picked up other than the economics of the business are changing. CBS and Sony will or will not figure out a way to economically make a season seven work.”
Moore will become an executive producer for the final season, joining Ryan, Justin Lin, Neal Moritz, Marney Hochman, Pavun Shetty, Billy Gierhart, Andy Dettman and Paul Bernard. Ryan and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas created the series, which is based on the 1970s show of the same name.
