The 7-season journey of an almost remake and military drama

It was May 17, 2017. The Plaza Hotel’s food hall and adjacent rooms on several floors were packed with people for the annual CBS pre-show party – an opulent spectacle in the final years of broadcast dominance. The teams behind the new CBS shows beamed after winning the lottery — beating the daunting odds of pilot season, in which hundreds of scripts vie for 20 pilot spots and, ultimately, a handful of series pickups by a major network. Except for producers of military dramas SEAL team, who were not in a festive mood.

The reason was the CBS brothers’ attempt to replace the female lead opposite star David Boreanaz in the pilot episode, Jessica Paré. At the network’s preview presentation at Carnegie Hall in the early afternoon, when the main cast of ” SEAL team went on stage without Paré. The absence spoke volumes as it was a broadcasting ritual – when your pilot is picked up, you go to the front – unless you get a call that you’re being recast.

There was nothing official back then, but the SEAL team The producers were very concerned – it was said that then-CBS CEO Les Moonves himself had suggested replacing Paré. Moonves, a former actor himself, remained closely involved in casting decisions and had the final say on everything, determining the fate of shows and actors. (Moonves resigned in fall 2018 amid a series of sexual misconduct allegations.)

I knew they had great opportunities ahead of them because what Moonves said went SEAL team The creative and production team, including Boreanaz, who served as executive producer from the start, made an impassioned plea and stuck with it until Paré was safe. She remained a regular on the series about an elite unit of US Navy SEALs for three seasons until her character unexpectedly left the unit after returning from its final mission in Afghanistan in the season four premiere, which aired at the height of the pandemic in December 2020.

Paré then returned to appear on the series, which ends its run on Paramount+ this weekend after seven seasons on CBS and the streamer – a rare series to have run for three or more seasons on two different platforms.

A few months after Pare’s exit SEAL team faced another challenge in May 2021: It had to leave CBS to make room for crime franchise spinoffs. NCIS: Hawaii, CSI: Vegas And FBI: International, as well as medical drama Good Sam. Ironic, SEAL team survived three of the four series NCIS: Hawaii And CSI: Vegas Canceled earlier this year to make room for another NCIS spin-off, NCIS: Originsalong with other new shows.

While NCIS: Hawaii And CSI: Vegas had no options, SEAL team moved to Paramount+ after four seasons on CBS. It is not surprising that so few television series have succeeded in this, as it is not an easy transition, requiring major adjustments to business frameworks, including budgets and salaries, as well as production logistics.

But after a four-episode run on CBS in fall 2021, the series was produced by CBS Studios SEAL team moved to the streamer, where it lasted three more seasons – and the cast and showrunner Spencer Hudnut were ready for more, as Season 7 wasn’t intended to be the final chapter until it was announced last November that it would be the end. SEAL teamThe departure from broadcasting in 2021 was not permanent: two years later, the series was picked up again, using episodes from the original broadcast on Paramount+ as new broadcast rates in the fall of 2023, as film and television production struggled through the Hollywood strikes delayed.

Backed by a loyal fan base and widespread support among veterans, SEAL team The series ran for seven seasons, a very respectable longevity these days, despite the series’ high cost and limited international sales potential due to its focus on the American military compared to the more easily translatable crime, medical and legal procedural genres.

It’s a rare series that has done well in both linear and digital — it was the highest-rated CBS series launching in May 2021, averaging 6.5 million viewers this season. Just a few months later, it landed on Paramount+’s year-end list as the most-watched original drama series on the platform for 2021.

Appropriate, SEAL team has reached another milestone before its impending end, finally cracking Nielsen’s top 10 streaming originals in August with the premiere of its two-episode seventh season.

SEAL team Max Thieriot has also been added to the CBS/CBS Studios group. As an original cast member of the series, he brought the studio a firefighting drama based on his experiences as a child in Occidental, California. It became a hit on CBS Tierra del FuegoCo-creator, executive producer and star of Thieriot, the network’s newest drama franchise; Offshoot Sheriff countryThe Morena Baccarin-headlined film is set to hit theaters in 2025-26, and another spin-off starring Jared Padalecki is being considered.

After a bumpy start and a challenging run, Benjamin Cavell made it SEAL team ends Sunday as one of the few series that bridged the heyday of broadcasting and the streaming era. And who knows, maybe he’ll beat the odds again and come back for that standalone film that was announced in 2022 but has never been heard from again.