CBS's Cancellations Continue a Troubling New Trend

Nielsen has released its list of the most-watched series, both streaming and broadcast, this season (through March 15th), and the rankings are surprisingly balanced. Streaming dominated the top three spots with Squid Game, Adolescence (both on Netflix), and Reacher on Prime Video. Streaming platforms secured 13 of the top 20 slots, but broadcast networks held their own. Tracker, Matlock, and High Potential took fourth through sixth, with CBS alone claiming six of the top 20.

The biggest surprise for me was how popular Robert De Niro’s Zero Day was on Netflix (tied for seventh), especially since it was terrible. On a brighter note, five comedies made the top 20, three of which were actually good: Nobody Wants This, A Man on the Inside, and Running Point on Netflix, along with CBS’s Ghosts and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage. (Ghosts was good at one point, but I wouldn’t make that argument anymore.)

Digging deeper into the numbers, I was struck by how dominant CBS remains in broadcast. The network ended up with a substantial number of the year’s top broadcast series. CBS is so loaded with popular shows that it’s able to cancel series other networks would renew in a heartbeat.

But CBS’s cost-cutting spree also feels like a warning shot for the industry. A few of these series “ended,” according to the network, though it’s clear some of those decisions weren’t exactly mutual. Tom Selleck, for instance, didn’t want to end Blue Bloods. Young Sheldon also ended, but that was just a transition into yet another prequel: Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.

Clearly, ratings aren’t the only thing driving renewals anymore. Costs are a major factor, and we’ve come a long way from the days when network stars were raking in $1 million per episode. Instead of paying inflated salaries for additional seasons, networks are opting to spin off series into cheaper reboots that reset the cast and crew’s pay back to season one rates. A freshman season of Georgie and Mandy is far cheaper than an eighth season of Young Sheldon, and the new Donnie Wahlberg spin-off of Blue Bloods, Boston Blue, will be a lot less expensive than a 15th season of Blue Bloods.

It’s no shock that Big Poppa’s House was axed, and The Neighborhood was given one final season. While their ratings were solid by network standards, they were middling for CBS. The network decided to cut costs and go with cheaper series that have room to grow, like Harriet Dyer’s DMV series. Fair.

On the other hand, CBS canceled FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International, yet they’re moving ahead with FBI: CIA, even though the two axed shows performed well enough to justify renewal by typical broadcast standards. “We have to be fiscally responsible, and ultimately those deals and the shows just weren’t penciling out for us from an economic perspective,” CBS President Amy Reisenbach said.

That same cost-cutting logic is why the still-popular Equalizer and S.W.A.T. were axed. A sixth and ninth season, respectively, would’ve cost more than a brand-new Yellowstone spin-off, Y: Marshalls, starring Luke Grimes. It’s the same playbook that AMC has been playing by for years on The Walking Dead and what Prime Video did to the Bosch series.

What’s happening here is more than just routine network adjustments; it’s a strategy shift that suggests CBS is no longer hedging its bets on longevity and loyalty. Instead, it’s opting for the cheaper, faster turnover of reboots and spin-offs. If Friends were airing today, NBC wouldn’t be shelling out millions to keep the cast together. They’d be pitching David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston a spin-off where Ross and Rachel move to L.A. after their wedding. Julia Louis-Dreyfus would be starring in Elaine, a Seinfeld spin-off, and M*A*S*H wouldn’t have lasted 11 seasons; it would’ve splintered into a Vietnam-set medical drama after the sixth. Ghosts is locked in for a fifth and sixth season, but don’t be surprised if it’s axed after that to make way for a spin-off set in an apartment complex after Samantha and Jay sell their Airbnb to developers.

The new network playbook is clear: why invest in established hits when cheaper spin-offs can keep the brand alive at a fraction of the cost?