When will a ‘Criminal Minds’ season 12 renewal be announced?

We feel like we’ve spent a lot of time on CarterMatt over the past few weeks discussing the fate of “Supergirl” and many other first-year CBS shows, which are still awaiting renewal news one way or another. However, at the same exact time there is one larger show that we have left out of these articles, and its future is very important to both the network and the franchise as a whole in “Criminal Minds.”

Before we say anything else, we should go ahead and mention that when looking at the big picture, it’s hard to envision a scenario where this show is canceled before a 12th season. Is it rather expensive to keep a show on the air at this point in its run? Sure. Actors command large salaries, and this is even more of a factor when you think about the fact that this is a show produced by ABC Studios rather than CBS itself. Negotiations are a little more complicated here than with many of their other shows, even in some ways ones produced by other studios including Warner Bros. TV.

Still, the main reason why “Criminal Minds” will not go anywhere is rather simple: Ratings. This show is really only under “NCIS” as a franchise for the network; the numbers for “Scorpion” are somewhat comparable, but this series has a popularity like very few others out there. It also just spawned a spin-off show.

In the end, we think that a renewal will be coming here, but it may be wrong to think that it could be coming before we get around to the middle of May. CBS may hold off until close to upfronts, or negotiations may not even be done until then. It’s possible that they could even renew the show without some current cast members signed to deals; they’ve done that in the past, as well.

What we’re trying to say here is rather simple in the end: There’s really not as much to worry about here as it may appear on the surface.

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