The news comes a year after S.W.A.T. was canceled before the decision was dramatically reversed a couple of days later with a renewal for a seventh and final season. This time, the network is not boxing itself in and leaving the door open to more by not branding 8 as the series’ final season.
The surprise renewal, which sources said came down pretty quickly over the last couple of days, also comes as S.W.A.T is wrapping production on its seventh season. Moore hinted at the drama not necessarily ending by posting set photos on his IG story yesterday with the caption “Season 7 finale will be [fire emoji],” not referring to the episode as series finale.
According to sources, the finale, which is still filming, was written as a satisfying series finale but also perfectly sets the show for another season, so no last-minute script changes are being made in light of the renewal.
As to what prompted CBS’ decision to extend S.W.A.T.’s run, like with the un-cancelation last year, it was based on the series’ continuing ratings strength on both linear and streaming. The series is a time period winner in viewers and a top 20 primetime broadcast drama, ranking #17 overall season to date with 6.1 million in Nielsen Most Current data. With live +35-day multi-platform viewing, S.W.A.T. delivers 8.8 million viewers an episode and is up +11% year over year.
