While CBS currently has a lot of things that it loves to promote, from Supergirl crossovers to Big Bang Theory surprises, other sections of the network’s library don’t get the same amount of attention. That's the case where the crime drama Person of Interest is concerned. Viewers have seen neither hide nor hair of the show since Season 4 concluded in May of last year, but now we know when the show will finally return to our televisions: Tuesday, May 3. Sadly, it will be the last season of the show, as CBS has apparently canceled it.
While it’s indeed great that CBS is at last bringing the show back for its truncated fifth and final season, the series did not make much of a leap from the network’s backburner. Following its debut, Person of Interest will air twice a week on back-to-back nights, presumably for the duration of its 13-episode run. So fans will get to watch Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson (and a slew of others) working with the Machine on both Monday and Tuesday nights for several weeks. The season/series finale date is set for June 21, so it’s possible there will be a week or so without any new episodes.
News of the show's schedule flip hit before the cancellation, but the doubled-up episodes definitely looked like a bad sign for the show's future, as that's a normal network tactic for burning off a series in its final days. Granted, it isn’t as big of a hit as getting moved over to Friday nights during the summer, and the show will likely still draw a bunch of viewers there at the beginning of the week.
There was previous talk of Person of Interest ending after Season 5, and even executive producer J.J. Abrams said a couple of months ago that he thinks it’s the final season. And now that's apparently true, according to TVLine. You usually want to see fireworks and fanfare when a show goes out, not long delays and bi-weekly episode runoffs. (Not that this is the only show that’s gotten mishandled on CBS recently.)
But I don’t want to get everybody’s hopes down or anything. After all, there’s presumably still a lot of story to get into in this world for its final season. (Mild spoilers below.)
Season 4 of Person of Interest ended with quite a bit of turmoil, as the A.I. Samartian and its operatives got closer than ever to taking down The Machine through a series of power outages. Bodies fell, tension reached an apex, and things were not at all summed up and safe by the time the credits rolled, either. So Season 5 – which is bringing back Sameen Shaw – will likely kick off with a bang. At least it better, considering it’ll be almost an entire year between episodes.
So don’t forget to mark this down on your calendars. Person of Interest is returning to CBS for its fifth and final season on Tuesday, May 3, and will begin airing on both Monday and Tuesday nights starting on May 9.
