NCIS: New Orleans season 8: Why isn’t it happening at CBS?

Tonight, unfortunately, marks the series finale of NCIS: New Orleans. So why aren’t we getting a season 8 at CBS? Is there one individual thing holding the show back? As you would imagine, we have a few different things to talk through here.

NCIS: New Orleans coming to a close this season is not the end result of just one thing. Instead, it’s actually the culmination of many different factors.

The ratings – The numbers since the show moved to Sunday have not been great, and they’ve been even worse this season. NOLA is averaging just a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just under 5 million live viewers. These aren’t bad ratings compared to some other network TV shows, but CBS tends to set a pretty high bar for itself. It’s also down 20% in both viewers and the demo from season 6.

The cost – Producing a show like this isn’t cheap, due in part to a large cast, filming on location, and all of the action sequences. It also had an added cost this season with virus protocols. Doing another season would likely mean signing the key players to new contracts, and doing this would not come cheap.

The story – Do we think that there were more cases that could have been showcased in a season 8? Sure, but ending with season 7 (and with a proper heads-up in advance by the network) allowed the writers to bring the story to a proper conclusion. Sometimes, it’s better to be left wanting more.

Could the show be revived down the road?

In theory sure, but it’s unlikely. We think the more likely scenario is that an actor or two here eventually turns up on the upcoming NCIS: Hawaii, whether they be a guest star or series regular. Remember that the new show and NCIS: NOLA do share some producers, so it’s easy to figure out how that could work.

Do you wish that there was an NCIS: New Orleans season 8 at CBS?

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