‘Limitless’ season 2: Renewal hopes and more for CBS drama

On paper, it seems easy to assume that “Limitless” would be renewed already on CBS. After all, the show feels like a perfect fit for what they like to put on the air, it has a major star in Bradley Cooper aboard as an executive producer, and it also is inspired by a successful feature film.

So why hasn’t the network renewed it? It’s a curious question, but it’s not so simple as them singling it out. CBS has steered clear of renewing any of their first-year series as of this writing, and that includes everything from “Supergirl” to “Code Black” to this show.

In terms of ratings alone, you could argue that “Limitless” is looking decent. Over the course of season 1, the show averaged about a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That puts the show behind “Supergirl,” but also ahead of “Code Black,” “Rush Hour,” and some of the already-renewed series including “Hawaii Five-0,” “Elementary,” “Blue Bloods,” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

On paper, doesn’t this look great? It does, but there are still some complications mixed in here. For one, the ratings for this show are front-loaded thanks to it generating strong ratings at the start of the season; as of late, it’s averaged more in the 1.0-1.3 range. Meanwhile, it’s to be seen how many other shows the network is going to pick up. So we’re not willing to call this a sure thing, but given CBS’ past history of picking up similar shows, we’re cautiously optimistic that there could be at least one more year of “Limitless” coming up in the near future. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.