The Good Wife is currently still bringing in alright numbers over at CBS on Sunday nights. Even if it wasn’t, the series has been a critically acclaimed drama for the network, and even earned a Golden Globes nod this winter. Unfortunately, today it was announced that The Good Wife showrunners Robert and Michelle King have decided to bow out of the series at the end of Season 7. This seems like a terrible sign, for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, The Good Wife’s ratings have been better than CSI: Cyber and even with Madame Secretary on Sunday nights, but it isn’t wowing CBS with its 1.6 rating average even if the show isn’t doing dismally. Factor in the idea that The Good Wife has mostly stuck around over the years thanks to its writing and the actors it has been able to bring in with Robert and Michelle King’s guidance, and the network has a bit of a problem. Once the Kings leave, we’d absolutely expect the quality to decline. (Especially as it’s already declined some with the losses of Archie Panjabi and Josh Charles.)
Still despite the problems that could come with the creative team leaving, Robert King did tell TV Line that CBS is not cancelling the drama just yet. Deals are currently being worked out and the network may choose to continue to Season 8, even if Robert and Michelle King are leaving to work on new projects, such as Amazon’s Vatican City.
The bottom line is CBS is trying to make deals for an eighth season, so we would be there in a supervisory role, but the storytelling we have will finish in the seventh year. That doesn’t mean we’re putting Alicia in her grave, because you couldn’t do an eighth season after that. But to our minds, we have always written with the idea we could end this season a certain way so that it would make it a satisfactory [conclusion to the] series.
So, the good news is, even if The Good Wife doesn’t hold steady during the second half of Season 7 and even if the show’s creators and longtime showrunners are leaving, The Good Wife is working toward a workable series ending at the end of Season 7. That way, even if the show does return for Season 8, the showrunners are still guaranteeing that the show will go out with a bang and not a whimper before they leave.
CBS has already made the early decision to cancel Mike & Molly, but the network said at TCA that it wants to check out how pilot season does before it makes any big cancellation decisions, including regarding The Good Wife.
The Good Wife just returned from winter hiatus this past weekend. You can catch new episodes on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET, only on CBS. To find out what else the networks have coming up at midseason, check out our winter TV premiere schedule.
Photo courtesy of CBS.
