CBS Boss On ‘NCIS: New Orleans’, ‘MacGyver’, ‘All Rise’ & ‘The Unicorn’ Cancellations

CBS this season bid farewell to three long-running series: comedy Mom, which ended after eight seasons, NCIS: New Orleans, which is wrapping after seven seasons, and MacGyver, which recently finished its five-season run.

All these decisions were made after a careful consideration, CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl told Deadline. The network announced all of them ahead of time, giving the shows proper sendoffs.

“Every year you evaluate what is making the strongest statement for your schedule and what gives you the best circulation, what will bring you the most numbers of viewers. You ask that question for pretty much every show every year, how can we make the schedule as strong as we can in the fall, and that leads to some tough decisions,” Kahl said. “MacGyver has been an excellent show for us, New Orleans was an excellent show for us. But sometime shows hit the end of their cycle and we have to, in some cases, say goodbye.”

While eight seasons these days is considered a pretty long for a comedy series like Mom, which also lost its original co-lead, Anna Faris, last year, New Orleans was the youngest in the NCIS franchise, and MacGyver too was one of the youngest among CBS’ established series. Both MacGyver and NCIS: New Orleans‘ ratings were on the low end of the spectrum for the network’s top series.

CBS’ sophomores All Rise and The Unicorn ended their runs on the network in a different way; they spent the spring on the bubble and were canceled this past Saturday. All Rise has two more episodes left to air, while The Unicorn had already wrapped its second-season run in March.

“We creatively love both shows, it’s literally a numbers game on the schedule, and it’s a number game when it typically comes to getting a renewal,” Kahl said. “I think these shows were not living up to the potential in terms of an audience that we hoped to see in their respective time slots.”