Networks have to decide whether or not to keep your favorite TV shows on the air. There is no shortage of options when it comes to what we want to watch. Production companies just evaluate if it is worth their money to renew shows for another year or not.
Cost plays a major role. A show’s budget needs to meet criteria that cover expenses like sets, scripts, casting, and production. If returns from advertising or subscription services isn’t enough, then those involved with the show may have to say goodbye. Here’s the status so far of some of your favorite shows:
Walker
- Status: Renewed
- Network: CW
- Est. Cost: $1 million per episode*
Walker was one of the shows that the CW announced it would be renewing for another season, much to the excitement of fans.
The second-season announcement came just three episodes into the first season, with fans having to wait until March 2022 for a third season announcement.
The show stars Jared Padalecki in the title role, and Lindsey Morgan, Genevieve Padalecki, and Keegan Allen with supporting roles. It’s about a Texas Ranger who returns home after being undercover for many years.
The show was created by Anna Fricke. It aired its first episode in January of 2021.
Cobra Kai
- Status: Renewed
- Network: Netflix
- Est. Cost: $2-3 million per episode*
Cobra Kai aired on Youtube Red first, before Netflix picked it up for its fourth season. The show saw a higher production budget with stars Billy Zabka and Ralph Macchio reprising their roles from the hugely successful Karate Kid franchise.
The comedy-drama focuses on the point of view of Zabka’s character, Johnny Lawrence, the owner of the Cobra Kai dojo. It differs from Macchio’s character’s perspective from the movies. It takes place thirty years after the films.
Dynasty
- Status: Canceled
- Network: CW
- Est. Cost: $1.3 million per episode*
The original Dynasty, a primetime soap, was a hit in the eighties before going off the air. The modernized reboot starring Elizabeth Gillies, Grant Show, Rafael de la Fuente, is doing pretty well, too.
A drama-packed fourth season had CW deciding to renew Dynasty for a fifth season. The announcement came in the spring of 2021, nearly a year after the third season finale aired.
However, they later decided that this was the show’s final outing.
New Amsterdam
- Status: Canceled
- Network: NBC
- Est. Cost: $2 million per episode*
New Amsterdam is a medical drama from NBC based on a book by Eric Manheimer, called Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital.
The medical drama was received well by fans, and NBC loved the viewership and ratings that it renewed the show for not just one, but two more seasons.
The New Amsterdam team will have a lot more cases to work with, but there’s a catch. There will be a fifth season, but it is the last one. It probably surprised fans who were sure this show would be around for the long haul.
Derry Girls
- Status: Canceled
- Network: Channel 4
- Est. Cost: $500,000-$2 million per episode*
Derry Girls is a British sitcom set in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. The show takes a candid look at The Troubles and their impact on children.
This coming-of-age comedy aired on January 4, 2018. It’s very popular, with one publication describing its success as “no flash in the pan.”
But despite its popularity, Derry Girls proves that even the best things are fleeting. The show ended after three seasons with one 45-minute special in 2022.
Fans were heartbroken, but the show won’t be forgotten.
The Flight Attendant
- Status: Pending
- Network: HBO
- Est. Cost: $2 million per episode*
Kaley Cuoco stole America’s heart starring on The Big Bang Theory. She proved, with The Flight Attendant, that she could carry a show by herself.
The Flight Attendant is a thriller, and it stars Cuoco as a hard-partying flight attendant who wakes up one morning with a dead man in her hotel room without knowing how he got there.
The show aired on HBO Max, and has a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Fan reception was positive, and HBO said that it would renew the show for a second season.
The announcement was made a day after the first season’s finale. But after the premiere of the second run, Cuoco shared that it’s “likely” the show won’t return for season 3.
Outlander
- Status: Renewed
- Network: Starz
- Est. Cost: $75 million per season*
Outlander, a time-travel romance, stars Sam Heughan and Cait Balfe. The show first aired in 2014 on Starz Network, and has since been awarded a Critics’ Choice TV Award.
Filmed all around the world including Scotland, Prague, England, and Cape Town, the series features Claire Randall, a WWII nurse honeymooning in Scotland until she is transported back to 1743.
With five seasons so far, it has been well-reviewed, with 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Season 6 was a short run, but season 7 will make up for lost time with 16 episodes.
Mr. Robot
- Status: Canceled
- Network: USA Network
- Est. Cost: Unknown
Rami Malek won audiences’ hearts for his incredible portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, but he has as much success on the small screen, too.
From 2015 to 2019, Malek starred in Mr. Robot, a USA Network production. By all accounts, the show was highly lauded, which was why fans were stunned to see it end after 4 seasons.
Many thought it was a network issue, but showrunners did explain that it was meant to last for a limited number of seasons.
Squid Game
- Status: Renewed
- Network: Netflix
- Est. Cost: $21.4 million per season*
Squid Game was a streaming phenomenon unlike any other. The South Korean drama series took off, attracting a millions-strong global audience in a few days.
Though it handles dark subject matter, its themes of a widening wealth gap resonated to fans all over the world.
The director had no plans for a second season, since the first was such a huge undertaking, while the story ends mostly resolved. But when the money bags at Netflix began pressuring the director, he agreed to make a second season.
Homecoming
- Status: Pending
- Network: Amazon Prime
- Est. Cost: $600,000 per episode*
Julia Roberts is no stranger to making serious money in Hollywood. In 2000, she made $20 million for her leading turn in Erin Brokovich. These days, things are a little quieter for her, but she’s still making dough with her Amazon series, Homecoming.
Each episode of the psychological thriller sees Roberts take home $600,000.
Critics loved the show when it premiered in 2018, praising it for its complexity and mysteriousness. Season 2 soon followed, but will there be a season 3? The jury is still out on this.
The Umbrella Academy
- Status: TBC
- Network: Netflix
- Est. Cost: Unknown
The Umbrella Academy, a Netflix series based on a comic book series by Gerard Way is about a family of seven superhero children adopted by a billionaire.
Tasked with preventing an impending apocalypse, the show has generated a massive fanbase thanks to action-packed, creative storytelling that jumps through time and space.
The first season is set in the present, while the second season occurs in the 1960s. The third season then jumps back to the present, but with the characters facing the consequences of time travel.
Stranger Things
- Status: Canceled
- Network: Netflix
- Est. Cost: $250,000/episode* (Cast Salary)
Stranger Things has become a very popular show with four seasons so far. It first aired in 2016, and after a stellar first season, the series greatly expanded its world, further deepening the addiction to the 1980s throwback series.
The stars of the show – Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, and more – have seen their salaries grow from around $30,000 an episode to a massive $250,000 per episode.
Brown is making even more, reportedly, but the show’s creators have said that the next season is to be the last.
Blue Bloods
- Status: Renewed
- Network: CBS
- Est. Cost: $60,000-$200,000* (Cast Salary)
Starring Tom Selleck as Frank Reagan, commissioner of the NYPD and patriarch leader of the Reagan family, the show is basically about a multigenerational police dynasty.
It also stars Donnie Wahlberg (Mike Wahlberg’s brother) and Bridget Moynahan. Blue Bloods films in New York City, and airs on CBS.
Blue Bloods was created by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess. Both made a lot of money from the series. The show is still forging ahead, renewed for a 13th season.
Bridgerton
- Status: Renewed
- Network: Netflix
- Est. Cost: $100 million per season*
Bridgerton was another massive breakout show for Netflix. The period dramas based on the best-selling novels by Julia Quinn was part of the $100 million deal Rhimes signed with the platform.
Rhimes developed the series, and soon became a social media supernova. Fans love the show, so it Netflix announced that there would be a third season.
Bridgerton, set during England’s Regency Era (1811-1820), tells the story of the eight Bridgerton family siblings who all struggle to find love.
Ozark
- Status: Canceled
- Network: Netflix
- Est. Cost: $9 million per episode*
Following two acclaimed seasons, Netflix quickly renewed the show for a third season, airing in 2020. Producers had a total of five seasons planned for the crime-focused show, saying they’d “always talked about it as five seasons” from the start.
Sadly, things didn’t go according to plan.
Netflix renewed Ozark for a fourth and final season, devastating viewers and critics who wanted more of the Byrde family for a little longer. The streaming platform didn’t give a reason for the cancelation, but it is possible that showrunners just wanted to go out on a high.
NCIS: Los Angeles
Status: Renewed
Network: CBS
Est. Cost: $950,000* (Cast Salary)
The star-studded spinoff of the original NCIS is an ambitious show, tackling the combination of military and police drama head on. It’s been going for 13 seasons, and with hundreds of episodes, it’s obvious that it’s a big win with the public.
In the series, Chris O’Donnell is a legendary agent who leads an undercover team within the NCIS. There is no actual NCIS branch in Los Angeles, but viewers are more than willing to suspend their disbelief to watch it every week just to see what O’Donnell’s character is up to.
Big Mouth
- Status: Renewed
- Network: Netflix
- Est. Cost: $50 million*
Good news for fans of this cheeky animated comedy. It has been renewed with a sixth season. Created and voiced by Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg, the show follows a group of preteen boys and girls who go on a journey we all know, and are very eager to forget; puberty.
Awkward moments and crippling insecurities give an intimate look inside the heads of the characters, made easier thanks to animation which can take plenty of artistic liberties that live action cannot.
The show hits too close to home for teenage viewers, but for adults it’s a hilarious, and even poignant romp. Netflix announced a seventh season in April 2022.
FBI
- Status: Renewed
- Network: CBS
- Est. Cost: $5-$7 million per episode*
Dick Wolf, the same creator behind the Law & Order franchise, partnered with Craig Turk to create FBI. The show has aired on CBS for four seasons and is so popular that it’s been renewed all the way to season six.
The series focuses on the inner workings of the FBI office in New York.
It focuses on crimes that happened, or are about to, and the team’s attempts to stop and/or solve them. FBI has done fairly well according to critics.
Young Sheldon
- Status: Renewed
- Network: CBS
- Est. Cost: $60,000 per episode* (Cast Salary)
The Big Bang Theory proved lucrative, so naturally there was a spin-off. CBS’s number-one comedy series people love is Young Sheldon.
It is the prequel to the life of super-genius Sheldon Cooper, and it features Iain Armitage as young Sheldon Cooper. This show was created by Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro.
The series set in 1989 has a 94% rating on Google. Young Sheldon is nine years old in the show, but has skipped four grades and is about to begin high school. The comedy has three seasons so far, with 52 episodes all in all.
Viewers were happy to learn that the show has been renewed for a fifth, sixth, and seventh season.
S.W.A.T.
- Status: Renewed
- Network: CBS
- Est. Cost: $4 million per episode*
This drama series focuses on a S.W.A.T. team in Los Angeles California. Starring Shemar Moore in the lead role, the show was praised for dealing with tough issues like race that are at the forefront of the problems with policing today.
S.W.A.T. is unique since it shares the same cinematic universe as The Shield, another show by the same creator.
The show started in 2017, but is based on a 2003 movie of the same name, which was also based on a 1975 show of the same name.
S.W.A.T. has been renewed for season 5.
White Lotus
Status: Renewed
Network: HBO
Est. Cost: $3 million per episode*
Yellowstone
Status: Renewed
Network: Paramount
Est. Cost: $3.5 million per episode*
Kevin Costner takes on the role of the head of the Dutton clan in the hit drama series “Yellowstone,” which premiered its inaugural episode in 2018. The Dutton family boasts a storied lineage spanning six generations, with John Dutton, portrayed by Costner, at the helm of America’s most extensive ranch. In his pursuit of preserving this vast land, John frequently finds himself at odds with unscrupulous corporations and developers. While the series has garnered significant acclaim, it maintains a respectable 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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