CBS Head Honcho Admits 'Probably Any Other Year' So Help Me Todd And NCIS: Hawai'i Would Not Have Been Canceled. Not Gonna Lie, It Hurts
The list of shows canceled in 2024 is long and full of some heavy hitters. CBS bore a lot of the brunt when it came to network TV’s choices this spring, axing some popular favorites including NCSI: Hawai’i, CSI: Vegas, and So Help Me Todd. As it turns out though, the network isn’t done dropping haymakers, as CBS Studios President David Stapf opened up about what happened with the cancelations, and now I’m honestly even more emotional about the decisions that were made.
Fans have been coming out of the woodwork in support of these canceled shows over the past couple of months. There’s a popular campaign to save So Help Me Todd. Meanwhile, #SaveNCISHawaii has remained an oft-used hashtag on social media. What’s really jarring, however, is hearing David Stapf admit to Deadline that if it had been any other year, these fan-favorite shows probably would have squeaked through with a renewal order.
It’s bittersweet, I love those shows a lot, so it was tough. I understood and sympathized with how difficult a decision it was to say goodbye to those. it’s always sad, and those shows were great. Probably any other year, they would have stuck around but there’s just not as many midseason slots anymore.
Basically, CBS has a classic good/bad problem. On the one hand, the network is one of the very few places that is still able to cultivate longterm audiences who want to stick around for years and years. However, because the Eye Network has developed a loyal audience, it means there are fewer slots open for new content, and if the network wants to work in a new show like Matlock or NCIS: Origins it has to do so at the expense of a show with a reasonably large fanbase.
Plus, back in the day, some shows might get a short fall season and not come back in the winter, allowing CBS to try some new shows at midseason. While Blue Bloods has a shortened season coming on the 2024 TV schedule, there’s not as many of these slots to play with anymore, as Stapf alluded to. It was just a year where tough decisions needed to be made, and they did get made.
I do get it. So much of what happens in life is chance. I met my husband because I sat next to him in an English class -- but what if I'd chosen a different seat? In this TV case, though, it almost hurts more to hear that if the ideas for Matlock or NCIS: Origins had simply gotten greenlighted a little later, it's probable Vanessa Lachey and her co-stars would still be on our TV screens next year.
This comment is almost as brutal as that time CBS used Lachey’s show to promote the NCIS series, prompting the fans’ ire a few weeks ago. I would almost have preferred the impression that these shows had no hope of lingering and were always on the chopping block. That doesn’t seem to be the case.
Investing in an acting job or being a fan of a TV series is always a little bit of a gamble, and that’s even more true on streaming now when shows often get axed after one season. On the one hand it’s great we got to spend a couple of years with So Help Me Todd, and three whole seasons in Hawai’i. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'll be as interested in Matlock as I was in any of these aforementioned three shows. We'll have to wait and see.
