Will CBS renew SWAT for Season 4?

ByAlexandria Ingham|

"Ekitai Rashku" -- Hondo, Deacon, Tan and Commander Hicks engage in a manhunt across Tokyo when they escort an extradited fugitive to Japan, where he escapes local custody. Back in Los Angeles, the rest of SWAT search for any contacts the criminal cultivated while hiding out in Los Angeles, and Street isolates himself from the team as he deals with family issues, on S.W.A.T., Wednesday, Jan. 29 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Portions of the episode were filmed on location in Tokyo. Pictured (L-R): David Lim as Victor Tan and Shemar Moore as Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson. Photo: Yosuke Koino/CBS ©2019 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Networks will have to make decisions about bubble TV shows soon. SWAT is one of those shows on the bubble. Will CBS renew SWAT for Season 4?

Our eyes are on the bubble TV shows right now. Networks will soon need to make decisions about all current shows for the next season, and SWAT is one of the bubble TV shows for CBS. Will SWAT be canceled or renewed for Season 4?

It’s hard to make a call this year. A lot is different, mostly with the pilots unable to film. Usually, networks will wait to make decisions about bubble shows and hold them up against the likelihood of the pilots’ performances. Since the pilots can’t film, the network will need to decide whether a pilot could possibly perform better than a current show based on the synopsis and show’s pitch.

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This could mean a lot of current shows are safer than they would usually be. There’s less risk involved in a network to commission another season of a current show than pick up a new show.

Usually, I’d say that SWAT is highly likely to be canceled after this season. Despite the powerful episode that just aired, the show remains one of the lowest performers on the entire network in terms of live ratings. It pulls in just an average of 3.82 million viewers with a 0.56 demo rating. The show sits 23rd out of 26 shows.

On top of this, the show has lost a large percentage of viewers and of the demo rating compared to SWAT Season 2. It could be the change of night or it could be a natural loss of viewers, but the show lost 28% of its demo and 26% of its audience.

Yet, CBS will need to keep some of its lower performers. SWAT could be one of those shows but could move to the spring. This would mean less money put into the show to keep it viable, something which has happened to MacGyver. We could also see it move to Fridays to fill up the Hawaii Five-0 slot, which allows for lower ratings.

There is a chance that CBS will renew SWAT for Season 4, but no guarantee just yet. We’ll let you know when there is a confirmed decision.

SWAT airs on Wednesdays at 10/9c on CBS.