Production has shut down on NCIS, NCIS: LA, NCIS: New Orleans, Chicago PD, and more. What does this mean for current and future seasons?
As coronavirus continues to spread, networks and production companies have made the difficult but understandable decision to shut down production on many shows. All three NCIS shows, all Chicago shows, Law & Order: SVU and many more have been affected. What does this mean for their current seasons and the futures of the shows?
TVLine has a full list of shows that have currently shut down production. You’ll see that not everything has just yet. SWAT, Nancy Drew, and others aren’t on the list just yet, but the situation is constantly changing. We’ll bring you the news as we get it.
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For now, some of the bigger TV crime dramas have shut down. Well, they will be shutting down. The plan is to finish filming whichever episodes they’re on, according to Deadline. After that, the shows will go on an early break. Most aren’t planning to return to film the final episodes of the seasons due to the costs of restarting productions.
Delaying production also means delaying the airing of the episodes. That will affect the networks’ abilities to run their spring and summer programming without a problem, so it’s likely that they are also pushing for airing reruns.
We will likely see some extra breaks in April to adjust the schedule. After all, the networks will still want episodes to air in May 2020.
As for the future seasons, this will depend on the current pandemic. There’s hope that coronavirus will start to slow down over the next few weeks. We’ll be getting out of flu season and many countries are now taking precautions to slow down and even halt the spread. Schools and events are closing, some travel has been halted, and many workplaces are taking steps to protect their employees.
Shutting down the production on TV shows is a good thing. It keeps the actors and crew members safe and healthy. They won’t need to return until around July. Many writers will be able to work from home and possibly dial in with each other through Skype, Zoom, or something similar. It allows for a virtual writer’s room to make sure there are episodes ready for when the shows need to start filming again for the next season.
Many shows have made it to around Episodes 19 to 21 of their current seasons. With many shows airing around 22 episodes (NCIS and its spin-offs tend to do 23), it means that most shows will feel like they have full seasons. While it will mean questions at the end, with hope, the shows will be renewed (NCIS definitely and Chicago PD and Law & Order: SVU already have three extra seasons) to wrap up any loose ends.
Stay tuned with Precinct TV for the latest on how coronavirus will affect your favorite TV crime dramas.