While there were initial concerns about moving S.W.A.T. to a Friday night timeslot, it proved to be the best thing for the series. The linear ratings ticked up, and it performed well with fellow Friday night dramas Fire Country and Blue Bloods. Then CBS made a surprising and devastating change to the Friday night schedule, moving S.W.A.T. season 8 into the 10 p.m. timeslot, causing the ratings to dip. We knew this was a bad idea at the time, and now the data proves it.
CBS' move has backfired, preventing S.W.A.T. season 9 from happening. This was a series that was continuing to rebuild its audience after its struggles during season 4, and consistency is always the key to that success. With S.W.A.T. already on the bubble and facing cancelation twice, the network's switch ultimately failed to improve matters, putting S.W.A.T. on the CBS 2025 cancelation list.
S.W.A.T. Season 8's Ratings Started Out Steady
The Series Had A Loyal Audience At 8 P.M.
While Friday nights were once viewed as the “Death Night” for TV shows, it’s become a successful night for many networks. Blue Bloods continued to perform well for many years, and Supernatural and Bones both managed to make comebacks after their move to Friday nights. There was hope that the same would happen for S.W.A.T., and for a while, it worked. In fact, the average ratings were above four million every week, beating its lowest point during season 4, but there were concerns that Blue Bloods' linear ratings on CBS were always stronger than S.W.A.T.'s
Despite being lower than Blue Bloods, S.W.A.T.'s linear ratings were stable, which is something all networks should want. With its move to Fridays in season 5, its ratings never dipped below a 6.14 million viewership average (via THR), which was actually up from season 4's 5.96 million average. From these ratings, it was clear that people wanted to see more of the series, and they were willing to consistently give up their Friday nights to watch TV. It didn’t make sense to shake things up in January and move it to a later timeslot.
S.W.A.T. Season 8 Significantly Dipped In Ratings After Its Timeslot Move
The Linear Ratings Prove The Move Was A Terrible Idea
Except for the second episode of season 8, Shemar Moore’s series pulled in more than four million viewers each week throughout the fall schedule. Since its return in January in the later timeslot, it has struggled to pull in 3.5 million views, with just two weeks seeing 3.6 million views in the same day figures, according to TV Series Finale.
While the 10 p.m. timeslot was strong for Blue Bloods, the two shows are different in terms of storytelling. Blue Bloods has consistently been a ratings draw for CBS, and it wouldn’t matter which timeslot it had, proving that the Blue Bloods cancelation was a mistake. There is a slightly older audience following Tom Selleck, while the younger audience would follow the likes of Donnie Wahlberg and Bridget Moynahan. However, the S.W.A.T. season 8 cast doesn’t have a big focus on an actor for an older generation more likely to be at home or not involved with family activities at 10 p.m. on Fridays.
Air Date | Episode Number | 18-49 Demo | Viewers (Millions) |
|---|---|---|---|
Oct. 18, 2024 | 1 | 0.28 | 4.045 |
Oct. 25, 2024 | 2 | 0.27 | 3.835 |
Nov. 1, 2024 | 3 | 0.32 | 4.545 |
Nov. 8, 2024 | 4 | 0.31 | 4.253 |
Nov. 15, 2024 | 5 | 0.26 | 4.132 |
Nov. 22, 2024 | 6 | 0.35 | 4.617 |
Dec. 6, 2024 | 7 | 0.29 | 4.334 |
Dec. 13, 2024 | 8 | 0.34 | 4.366 |
Jan. 31, 2024 | 9 | 0.24 | 3.140 |
Feb. 7 | 10 | 0.25 | 3.473 |
Feb. 14, 2025 | 11 | 0.21 | 3.398 |
Feb. 21, 2025 | 12 | 0.34 | 3.483 |
Feb. 28, 2025 | 13 | 0.29 | 3.666 |
March 7, 2025 | 14 | 0.25 | 3.199 |
March 14, 2025 | 15 | 0.32 | 3.685 |
S.W.A.T. season 8 was still trying to rebuild its audience after the initial back-and-forth over whether the series would be canceled or not. On top of that, CBS had already seen that this show didn’t perform well in the later timeslot when it aired on Thursdays and then Wednesdays.
Networks know that scheduling these shows at an earlier time is a better way to gain the audience back, and ABC, CBS, and NBC were all considering getting rid of the 10 p.m. timeslot a couple of years ago for this very reason – the struggle with viewership. It’s no wonder that the ratings declined as the cop drama moved to it.
S.W.A.T. Could Have Continued Thriving If It Stayed In Its 8 P.M. Timeslot
CBS Put NCIS: Sydney Before S.W.A.T.
Shemar Moore as Hondo in SWAT season 8, episode 14, talking to someone
Unfortunately, CBS bumped S.W.A.T. to give NCIS: Sydney a boost, moving S.W.A.T. out of the slot where it had been comfortable. While the cop drama went up against NBC’s newest comedy Happy’s Place, the series could have continued to perform well on Friday nights. The two shows pull in different audiences, with comedies offering a great next-day watch as they are quick and easy to add into a day. S.W.A.T. season 8 had already proven to perform well up against Reba McEntire’s comedy in the fall, so there was no need to worry about it come the winter returns.
Yes, CBS wanted to give NCIS: Sydney a positive push, but that shouldn’t have been at the expense of a longer-running show. To make matters worse, NCIS: Sydney was never supposed to be a broadcast series in the first place. It was made for streaming, and it only moved to broadcast due to the writers’ strike of 2023, which delayed a number of shows, so that CBS could fill up the schedule.
In the end, CBS put its own NCIS franchise ahead of the fan-favorite series S.W.A.T. The network's choice hurt the show, leading to an unsurprising and disappointing cancelation.
Source: THR, TV Series Finale
