CBS has made some questionable choices this season handing out cancellations to several beloved and hit series, but it’s decision to cancel NCIS: Hawaii after three seasons is by far the most puzzling of cancellations the network has made all season.
After three seasons, CBS announced the cancellation of NCIS: Hawaii just weeks before what will now be the show’s series finale. While cancellations are nothing new for broadcast viewers, what makes the cancellation of NCIS: Hawaii stands out is the fact that the show basically had done everything right. In fact, if it was airing on any other broadcast channel, there likely isn’t a world in which it would have been canceled due to the fact that its ratings have been holding strong in its current third season with the show ranking No. 12 overall among all broadcast series in viewership.
Let that sink in for a minute.
NCIS: Hawaii has been averaging 7.8 million linear viewers and 10 million in Live+35 multi-platform viewing in its third season. Those numbers not only make the show the No. 12 most-watched non-sports program on broadcast, but also No. 6 in total audience among CBS’s dramas meaning only five shows on the network are watched by more viewers (those shows being Tracker, NCIS, FBI, Blue Bloods, and The Equalizer). This means that it has performed better for CBS than FBI: International, FBI: Most Wanted, Elsbeth, SWAT, Fire Country, and NCIS: Sydney, yet CBS chose not to renew the series for a fourth season despite handing out renewals to the six shows being outperformed by NCIS: Hawaii.
CBS canceled NCIS: Hawaii as a corporate cost-cutting decision
There was nothing NCIS: Hawaii has done wrong in terms of its performance on the network. The show has remained a top performer for CBS and has built a strong fan base, and Deadline even reports the show had a stronger multi-platform reach than many shows CBS has renewed already including FBI: International, FBI: Most Wanted, and SWAT. So if the show has continued to perform well for the network, why was NCIS: Hawaii canceled? In short: corporate cost-cutting efforts to save money.
As reported by Deadline, with CBS’s parent company focusing on “its short-term balance sheet as it prepares to sell, a corporate decision was made not to take a chance” on the show. Basically, it was too expensive for Paramount Global and they decided that rather than keeping a successful series going they’d save some money by canceling the series in favor of cheaper offerings.
We absolutely get that this was a business decision, but the creative team behind the series was looking to make budget cuts and a shortened season was on the table. Sadly, those efforts weren’t enough, as Paramount Global decided it was better to save some money than to keep a hit series going.
NCIS: Hawaii deserved at least a proper final season
What hurts so much with this cancellation is the fact that NCIS: Hawaii now becomes the first NCIS series not to get a proper sendoff. It also ends its run as the shortest NCIS series in the franchise’s history as NCIS: New Orleans made it to seven seasons while NCIS: LA made it to 14 seasons – the flagship series meanwhile shows no signs of slowing down, having been renewed for season 22.
NCIS: Hawaii has done everything it could. The ratings are strong and the show hasn’t skipped a beat, with season 3 delivering another amazing batch of episodes. If the network wanted to bring the show to an end, it would have been nice for the show to at least have been given the chance to go out on its own terms with a planned ending. Instead, we’re going to be left without any resolution to the show’s ongoing storylines and these amazing characters we’ve fallen in love with won’t be getting the proper sendoff they deserve.
What’s so frustrating is that we’ve only just scratched the surface of the potential NCIS: Hawaii brought to the franchise. The series still had so many stories left to tell and had truly hit its stride in season 3. Perhaps Paramount Global forgets that NCIS didn’t immediately become TV’s No. 1 series. It took time and an investment in the show which eventually grew into one of the most successful franchises on television. NCIS: Hawaii has already proven it can be a strong ratings performer and ends on top as one of TV’s most-watched programs.
It’s just a shame that CBS’s parent company decided to bring the end to a truly incredible series featuring one of the most diverse NCIS franchise casts we’ve seen in the franchise simply because it wanted to save a few dollars.
The NCIS: Hawaii series finale will air Monday, May 6 at 10/9c on CBS.