SEAL Team has gone in some groundbreaking directions with its fourth season on CBS, but as the weeks pass and the finale draws closer, there is still no word of a Season 5 renewal. The news is particularly troubling in light of the five big renewals that CBS recently handed down to NCIS, S.W.A.T., Blue Bloods, Magnum P.I., and Bull. Now, with a little over a month to go before the Season 4 finale, SEAL Team star David Boreanaz has a message for CBS about Season 5.
David Boreanaz hit social media on April 16 to both thank the fans of SEAL Team and directly address CBS with a suggestion about the future of the series. The star posted this on Instagram:
The photo that David Boreanaz chose for his post honors the real-life veterans who fought the kinds of missions that Jason Hayes and the rest of Bravo fight on the scripted SEAL Team, but his caption is what addresses CBS as well as fans and veterans. His message of "Lets keep it going" to the network is encouraging but not abrasive, and even the #NeverOutoftheFight hashtag isn't accusatory, but the message is clear: Boreanaz wants SEAL Team to return for Season 5.
And judging by fan responses, he's definitely not alone! David Boreanaz posted the same photo on Twitter, along with the message of "lets renew this show" with both CBS and the official SEAL Team account tagged. He has also retweeted a number of fan posts urging a renewal for Season 5, including one suggesting a mail-in letter campaign and another linking to CBS' Show Feedback page. Nothing has seemingly been decided at the time of writing, but Boreanaz is definitely generating some positive buzz for the show and the push for a renewal.
SEAL Team has certainly proven that it can rise to necessary changes in production, as the highly action-packed show had to adapt to continue making new episodes despite unprecedented challenges, plus the departure of a series regular at the beginning of the season. It's also worth noting that SEAL Team isn't doing so badly in ratings or viewership that a cancellation would be especially expected, especially in light of other renewals.
According to TVLine, SEAL Team is currently averaging over 4 million viewers and an 0.5 rating in the key demographic, in Live+Same day measurements. While those numbers do mark a 17% drop in audience size and 24% drop in ratings from the third season, SEAL Team does rank above the renewed S.W.A.T. and Bull in the ratings and above S.W.A.T. in audience size.
In fact, S.W.A.T. is arguably the most comparable CBS series to SEAL Team, as two action-packed series centered on an ensemble behind one central star, and the two shows even both premiered in the fall of 2017 and are currently airing their fourth seasons. That said, S.W.A.T. is set in Los Angeles, while SEAL Team takes the action all over the world, which may make production even more complicated than other shows in light of pandemic challenges, which the show kept off-screen from the beginning of the season.
For now, fans can only wait and hope that CBS does indeed decide to "keep it going" when it comes to the future of SEAL Team. David Boreanaz's efforts on social media surely won't hurt, and there are still episodes left that could deliver some encouraging numbers.
The next new episode of the shortened fourth season airs on Wednesday, April 21 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, with what is currently the Season 4 finale (rather than series finale) airing on May 19. It's possible that the Wednesday time slot doesn't help SEAL Team, as it places the Boreanaz show up against Chicago Fire, which routinely wins the 9 p.m. hour for NBC.
