CBS Cancelled Shows
CBS leans on long-running procedurals, so a cancellation there is usually the end of a substantial run. These are the cancelled CBS shows.
56 cancelled CBS shows · 8% renewal rate
CBS's biggest cancellations — and why they ended
1. S.W.A.T.
S.W.A.T. had one of the stranger endings in recent network television. CBS cancelled it after season six in 2023, only to reverse course and bring it back after fan outcry and strong streaming numbers suggested there was still a real audience for it. That kind of reprieve is rare, and it bought the show two more seasons, but it also signaled that the network was watching closely. By the time season eight wrapped in May 2025, CBS apparently decided the math no longer worked in the show's favor.
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2. CSI: NY
CSI: NY was always the middle child of the CSI franchise. The original Las Vegas show was the institution, CSI: Miami had its campy charisma and David Caruso's sunglasses, and New York sat somewhere in between, competent and well-reviewed but never quite generating the same cultural heat. By its ninth season, that positioning had become a real liability.
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3. 2 Broke Girls
Six seasons and 137 episodes is a decent run by any measure, but by the time CBS pulled the plug on 2 Broke Girls in 2017, the show had long since peaked. It debuted to strong numbers in 2011, riding the wave of network sitcom comfort food that CBS had mastered, but ratings eroded steadily over the years. By season six, the audience had shrunk considerably from those early highs, and the show no longer carried the weight it once did on Monday nights.
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4. Cold Case
Cold Case ran for seven seasons on CBS, which by any measure is a substantial run, but the show's cancellation in 2010 still came without a proper series finale. That was the real frustration for fans. The show simply stopped, mid-story, when CBS declined to renew it.
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5. Ghost Whisperer
Ghost Whisperer ran for five seasons on CBS, which is actually a decent innings for a supernatural drama. Jennifer Love Hewitt played Melinda Gordon, a woman who communicated with the dead, and the show built a loyal audience in the mid-2000s when CBS was leaning into procedural comfort viewing. For a while it fit that mold well enough, pairing ghost-of-the-week stories with ongoing mythology in a way that kept Friday night viewers reasonably happy.
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6. Numb3rs
Numb3rs had a decent six-year run on CBS, but by its sixth season the show was clearly running out of momentum. The ratings had declined significantly from its earlier years, when it pulled in audiences curious about the novelty of a mathematician helping the FBI solve crimes. That hook was genuinely fresh in 2005, but by 2010 procedural television had become so crowded on CBS alone that a show needed strong numbers to justify its slot. Numb3rs was no longer delivering those.
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7. Unforgettable
Unforgettable had one of the stranger trajectories in recent network television history. CBS cancelled it after its first season in 2012, then brought it back for a second run in 2013 on A&E before CBS picked it up again. That kind of institutional uncertainty rarely bodes well for a show's long-term health, and by the time it limped into its fourth season, the audience had thinned considerably. The premise, a detective with hyperthymesia who can recall every detail of her life, was genuinely distinctive for a procedural, but the show never quite figured out how to keep that hook from feeling like a gimmick once the novelty wore off.
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8. FBI: Most Wanted
CBS pulling the plug on FBI: Most Wanted after six seasons and 108 episodes is a bit of a surprise on the surface, given that the franchise it belongs to has been a reliable workhorse for the network. The Dick Wolf procedural universe, which also includes FBI and FBI: International, has kept CBS's Tuesday nights humming for years. But reliability eventually hits a ceiling, and Most Wanted was arguably the weakest link in that trio. A 6.9 on IMDb is not a disaster, but it reflects an audience that was engaged enough without ever being particularly passionate. Procedurals live and die by their linear ratings, and after six seasons, the show was almost certainly drawing a smaller and older slice of even its own original audience.
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9. MacGyver
CBS's reboot of MacGyver had a decent enough run by modern broadcast standards, lasting five seasons and 94 episodes, but it never really escaped the shadow of the original or built the kind of passionate audience that keeps a procedural alive when the numbers start slipping. The show settled into CBS's reliable but aging Friday night lineup, which is not exactly where you park a show you believe in. Ratings eroded steadily over the course of its run, and by season five the audience had thinned to the point where renewal became a harder sell than cancellation.
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10. Under the Dome
Under the Dome arrived on CBS in 2013 as a prestige sci-fi drama based on Stephen King's novel, and it drew solid viewership in its first season. The premise was arresting: a small New England town wakes up trapped beneath an invisible dome with no explanation, forcing residents to confront both the mystery of the barrier and their own fractured society. For a network drama, the hook was strong enough to pull millions of viewers each week.
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All cancelled CBS shows
Frequently asked
- How many shows has CBS cancelled?
- IsItRenewed currently tracks 56 CBS shows with a settled cancelled verdict. The list updates as new cancellations are confirmed.
- Does CBS cancel more shows than it renews?
- Of the 61 CBS shows that have faced a renew-or-cancel decision, 5 were renewed and 56 cancelled — a 8% renewal rate.
- What is the most popular cancelled CBS show?
- By current audience popularity, S.W.A.T. is the most popular CBS show with a cancelled verdict.
- Is a cancelled show ever revived?
- It happens, but rarely. A cancelled verdict reflects the current decision; if a show is picked up again, its verdict here changes to reflect that.