SWAT star Shemar Moore has shared his reaction to the show being abruptly canceled. The series, which is currently airing season 6, is a reboot of the 1975 series of the same name and stars Moore as Sergeant Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson, the leader of a Special Weapons and Tactics team of the LAPD. The show is a co-production between CBS and Sony, an increasingly unpopular type of economic arrangement that led to the show being canceled earlier this morning in spite of solid ratings.
Today, Moore took to Instagram to share his emotional reaction to the SWAT cancellation. He shared his opinion that the cancellation "makes no sense" and that the producers had been leading them to believe the show would continue at least into season 7. He lamented the amount of crew members who would be losing work, saying that he hopes CBS will "wake up and realize they made a mistake." Check out his full quote and the original post below:
I got sunglasses on cuz I’m a little bit sad. I’m a lot a bit sad… SWAT got canceled. It makes no sense. Look up the articles, read the articles. We are the best shows on Friday night at 8 for CBS. The last two years we have been killing it, us and [Fire Country, which] comes on right after us… We’ve done nothing wrong. We did everything that was asked for. And let me tell the truth. We’re diverse. Did you know I am the only African American male lead on network TV? Not streaming, not cable, network television… Let’s get beyond me. SWAT is the most diverse show on CBS… If I post this and I think I might, I will get in a lot of trouble with CBS because I’m calling them out cuz they’ve been wonderful to me for 26 out of my 29-year career. But to abruptly get told that you’re canceled when you led us to believe last week and the week before that… that we would have some semblance of a season 7 to at least say goodbye, if not continue, and to abruptly be told you’re done…now there’s a lot of politics, a lot of things called licensing, a lot of you won’t understand what that means…its all about money, y’all. They said we’re canceled, but guess what I don’t think we’re done. CBS is either gonna wake up and realize they made a mistake. Sony is gonna do their math and realize that this is not the right move. I hope we can have a kumbaya and come back together and continue this show because it’s a good time for families across the world. If it is the end, life will go on, I’m not worried about me. I care about my family, my crew, the writers, the producers, the caterers, the wardrobe, the sound mixers, the teamsters, the construction crew ..that’s a whole lot of people who are abruptly being told you that don’t matter, sorry, thank you for your services. Good luck in finding a new job. To me that’s not okay.
Why Renewing SWAT is So Complicated
SWAT has fallen victim to a new trend in the TV marketplace, which is for networks to have full ownership of the programs they air. This is a trend that was partially responsible for the massive spate of 2022 CW cancellations and may have also been a secondary motive for yesterday's Yellowstone cancellation at The Paramount Network. As the streaming and television landscapes continue to shift, this could continue to be an issue for established series that come from partnerships between multiple companies.
However, SWAT is even more complicated than most co-productions. In addition to the involvement of Sony and CBS, there is a complicated collection of intellectual property rights at the core of the show. In addition to being a reboot of a 1970s series, it also takes place in the extended universe of the FX series The Shield, two additional factors that likely make negotiations more complicated.
This complicated web of rights-holders might be what prevents SWAT from being picked up by another network or streaming service like many other cancelled series. However, if the cancellation and Moore's post stir up enough fan outrage, the decision may still be reversed. It remains to be seen, however, and the ongoing WGA writers strike may either delay that decision or push the companies toward sticking with today's decision.
Source: Shemar Moore/Instagram
SWAT airs on CBS Fridays at 8/7C.