At this point, it’s basically every reality and scripted television that’s been impacted by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, but now some productions are taking things a step further and deciding that they will not be returning this season at all.
While there are shows that premiere year-round now, there are still many networks and series tied to the traditional television season model, which means for those shows, they were closing in on their season finales in the production schedules. The traditional season usually finishes filming in late March to early April for May airing.
This season, with the coronavirus pandemic unleashing extreme measures to try and minimize its spread, many fans were anticipating longer than usual delays for those sure-to-be dramatic final episodes, but now — in the case of some shows — it may not happen at all.
As has been the case with many different industries, the response has escalated as the outbreak has, which means it’s fully expected that more shows might follow the lead of the below series in simply cancelling their final episode(s) for this season, pushing those stories into next season …. assuming they have a next season.
Check out the list of shows that have already pulled the plug on the current season, and what we know about how much is being cut and what fans are losing out on:
Superstore: America Ferrara’s farewell season is getting the short end of the stick as NBCUniversal pulled the plug on production (along with their other shows) before they could film the season finale episode, which is marked to be her last, per TVLine. “Today is unexpectedly my last day shooting on ‘Superstore’ for this season,” Ferrara told fans on her Instagram Stories Friday. She went on to add, “I assume [this] means we’ll be coming back when things clear up to finish Amy’s storyline,” giving fans hope that she’ll return to give her character a proper farewell in what will now serve as the Season 6 premiere.
NCIS: According to star Brian Dietzen, the veteran CBS procedural is wrapping production four episodes early on its 17th season, with no intention to return this season no matter how things play out with the coronavirus. “Unfortunately we’ll be shutting down production of NCIS for the remainder of the season after we wrap tomorrow,” the actor tweeted on Friday. “We’ll produce 20 of our 24 episode order.” While the ratings leader is considered a lock for renewal, CBS has yet to officially make that call. That said, actor Sean Murray is confident, telling fans on Twitter the stories will be picked up in Season 18.
The Neighborhood: Originally granted an exception to the overall production shutdown as it only had two days of filming left for its Season 2 finale, CBS and producers decided on Friday to pull the plug. The comedy, starring Cedric the Entertainer and Max Greenfield, was originally slated to finish production on Tuesday. According to Deadline, the episode is now likely never to be finished or aired, despite being the concluding chapter of a multi-episode arc. Presumably, should the popular series return next season (it’s expected to), the episode will either be retooled or refilmed entirely to still resolve that storyline.
We’ll keep updating this if and when more series make this extreme decision.
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