S.W.A.T. fans aren’t happy that CBS cancelled the drama after six seasons — and neither is star Shemar Moore.
Moore, who plays Hondo on the long-running procedural, responded to the cancellation news in an Instagram video, admitting: “I’m a little bit sad. I’m a lot of bit sad… S.W.A.T. got cancelled. It makes no sense.” He pointed to the show’s ratings: “The last two years, we’ve been killing it… We’ve done nothing wrong. We’ve done everything that was asked for.” He also underlined the show’s diversity: “Did you know that I am the only African American male lead on network TV?… S.W.A.T. is the most diverse show on CBS.”
He added that when he posts this video, “I will get in a lot of trouble with CBS because I’m calling them out because they’ve been wonderful to me for 26 out of my 29-year career. But to abruptly get told that you’re cancelled when you led us to believe last week, and the week before that, that we would have some semblance of a Season 7 to at least say goodbye, if not continue, and to abruptly be told you’re done… now there’s a lot of politics, a lot of things called licensing, a lot of you won’t understand what that means… it’s all about money, y’all.”
But he ended on an upbeat note: “I don’t think we’re done. CBS is either gonna wake up and realize they made a mistake. Sony is gonna do their math and realize that this is not the right move. I hope we can have a kumbaya and come back together and continue this show because it’s a good time for families across the world.”
CBS cancelled S.W.A.T. on Friday, and the May 19 season finale will now serve as a series finale. This season, S.W.A.T. has averaged 6.8 million total viewers and a 0.7 rating, up 6% in audience and off just a tenth in the demo from its Season 5 numbers. But as Deadline reported in March, the Sony TV/CBS Studios co-production was facing some belt-tightening before any renewal was handed out.
This story originally appeared on TVLine
