Now in its eight season, S.W.A.T. is the second longest-running scripted series currently on CBS. The network has not announced it as a final season.
“It’s been called the final season the last three or four seasons, hasn’t it?,” S.W.A.T. executive producer Ryan quipped during a Deadline interview about the second season of his hit Netflix series The Night Agent.
He refers to the fact the last two seasons of S.W.A.T. both were considered final at some point. After a string of early renewals, the police drama starring Shemar Moore was dramatically canceled in May 2023 after six seasons only for CBS to reverse the decision days later with a pickup of what was announced at the time as a seventh and final season. Flash-forward to May 2024 when S.W.A.T. was surprisingly renewed for an eighth season.
Is Ryan — who was S.W.A.T. showrunner before Andrew Dettmann was named to the post in Season 7 — hoping Season 8 won’t the final season either?
“The show I think is beloved in the executive ranks at CBS, the show is beloved by our audience. The show creatively, I’m happy and somewhat embarrassed to say, hasn’t dropped a step since I handed over the showrunning reins to Andy Dettmann,” Ryan said. “But we also understand that a corporate change is happening in that world. I know David Ellison, I wrote a movie for him back in the day.”
CBS is in the midst of an ownership change, with Ellison’s Skydance in the process of acquiring CBS parent Paramount Global. Fifteen years ago, Ryan was tapped to write a feature adaptation of Tom Clancy’s best-seller Without Remorse for Paramount Pictures and Skydance. The project ultimately didn’t move forward.
“I don’t know what the plans are. I don’t know what the criteria for renewal is going to be. It seems like it could be much different than years past,” Ryan said about the upcoming CBS renewal decisions, the bulk of which are expected after the Skydance acquisition closes in March-April. “I don’t know if it’s an advantage or disadvantage that we’re produced by an outside studio this year. I think economics are going to play into things, so it’s all uncertain, but we’re just going to continue to make the best show we can that our audience loves, and we’ll see where the chips fall. And that’s what we’ve done the last few seasons. We’re really proud of the legacy of that show.”
S.W.A.T. comes from an independent studio, Sony Pictures Television, which co-produces the series with CBS sibling CBS Studios.
The series coming from an outside studio has played a role in previous renewal negotiations. As Deadline reported in 2023, an impasse over the size of the order, which would’ve hurt the economics for Sony TV, was behind the show’s cancellation after six season. But Sony TV also has been credited with finding ways to make offers CBS couldn’t refuse that have kept S.W.A.T. on the air for so long — while also keeping the show’s production in Los Angeles, an increasingly rare proposition these days.
According to sources, renewal talks between CBS and Sony TV have not started yet. When they do, all these factors are expected to come into play.
