By Blake Stilwell
It’s been a long, rocky road for the cast, crew and fans of David Boreanaz and “SEAL Team,” and that road must now come to an end. The show will soon start production on its seventh season, which will now be its last.
“For six seasons I have been fortunate and blessed to be a part of an outstanding cast and crew,” Boreanaz, who plays Master Chief Jason Hayes on the show, said in a statement. “Every day spent was a note of thanks to our men and women in the military and Special Ops. I thank our fans, and I’m proud we were able to make this show shine light in the darkness toward so many suffering today. I look forward to season seven and the opportunity to end this series with love and gratitude.”
“SEAL Team” started its run on CBS in 2017 and went for four seasons before the network threatened to cancel the series altogether, airing the first four episodes of Season 5 on the network before moving it over to streaming platform Paramount+.
In February 2022, Paramount+ announced a green light for a sixth season. The seventh season of “SEAL Team” was announced in January 2023, but production was delayed by the Screen Actors Guild strike, which lasted from July 14 to Nov. 9, 2023.
Fans of the series will be additionally disheartened by the news that, because “SEAL Team” is now in its final season, a previously announced stand-alone movie has been canceled by Paramount.
After the end of its fourth season on CBS in 2021, the show was not outright canceled, but was missing from the network’s fall lineup. Boreanaz asked fans to take to Twitter, now known as X, and Instagram to let CBS know how much they wanted the show to continue. Like “Chuck,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Friday Night Lights” before it, the plan to save “SEAL Team” appeared to work.
It’s hard to determine why CBS would have canceled the show. Its ratings outperformed CBS staples “The Amazing Race,” “Undercover Boss” and “48 Hours” that year, according to numbers provided by Variety.
A date hasn’t been set, but the seventh and final season of “SEAL Team” is expected to run on Paramount+ in 2024.