The upcoming season of S.W.A.T. almost didn’t happen — but pushback from lead actor Shemar Moore and devoted viewers convinced CBS to change its mind. Find out when Season 7 of the hit cop drama is returning and which cast members are coming back for the show’s final run.
S.W.A.T. is the popular police procedural on CBS that premiered in 2017. The series stars Shemar Moore as Sergeant II Daniel “Hondo” Harelson, a former marine hired to lead the Special Weapons and Tactics unit of the LAPD. S.W.A.T. is based on the original 1975 TV series and 2003 film with Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, and LL Cool J.
Aaron Rashaan, the show’s co-creator and former showrunner, pitched a reboot of the series based on his personal experiences with the police growing up in Kansas City. Executive producer Shawn Ryan (The Shield) called S.W.A.T. a “pro-cop show, but this is also a pro-community show,” to The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “I want to see how the cops deal with people. I want to see how the people deal with cops.”
After six seasons, CBS initially decided not to renew S.W.A.T. for a seventh season in May 2023. Quickly, the cancelation news received immense backlash from Shemar and the show’s fans, who slammed the network for its lack of diversity.
“It makes no sense. We’ve done nothing wrong. We did everything that was asked for,” Shemar said in a video posted to Instagram on May 6. The actor also praised S.W.A.T. as “the most diverse show on CBS.”
“CBS, when I got hired to be Hondo on S.W.A.T., was getting a lot of flak for lack of diversity. If I post this, and I think I might, I will get in a lot of trouble with CBS because I’m calling them out. Because they’ve been wonderful to me for 26 out of my 29-year career,” he explained in the video. “But to abruptly get told that you’re cancelled when you led us to believe last week — and the week before, and the week before that — that we would have some semblance of a Season 7 to at least say goodbye, if not continue. And to abruptly be told, ‘You’re done.’”
CBS swiftly reversed the decision and revealed that S.W.A.T. will return for a seventh and final season. “We have listened to our viewers and their outpouring of passion for S.W.A.T. and we have reached an agreement to renew it for a final season of 13 episodes to air during the 2023-2024 broadcast year,” said Amy Reisenbach, President of CBS Entertainment, and Katherine Pope, President of Sony Pictures Television Studios, said in a joint statement.
The now-resolved Writer’s Guild of America and Actor’s Guild strike postponed the final to season 2024. Finally, CBS announced that the series will return in February 2024. Learn more about the last season of S.W.A.T. below.
When Does S.W.A.T. Return In 2024?
Season 7 of S.W.A.T. will return to CBS on February 16, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
In the premiere, “The team heads to Mexico to escort a fugitive back to the U.S., but things go awry and Hondo has to save an old witness tied to the case,” according to the episode description.
How Many Episodes Will Be In S.W.A.T. Season 7?
The seventh and final season of S.W.A.T. will have 13 episodes when the show returns on CBS. This marks the shortest season of the police procedural in the show’s seven-year history.
Who Is In S.W.A.T. Season 7 Cast?
Most of the Season 6 cast are expected to return for the final season of S.W.A.T, including Shemar Moore, Patrick St. Esprit, and more. Additionally, Anna Enger Ritch will reprise her role as Officer Zoe Powell and join as a season regular after her character’s debut in Season 5.
“There’s always gossip…,” Ritch told TVLine about when she first heard the news, “but I did not get final confirmation until right before we started production, after the [WGA and SAG-AFTRA] strikes.”
Ritch has appeared on the police series 17 times, and the actress said her favorite part about playing Zoe is that she’s “unapologetically herself.” She continued, “She’s headstrong, she’s courageous, and she’s also a ride-or-die. When you get her to buy into anything, she’ll go to war with you.”
Returning cast:
- Shemar Moore as Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson
- Patrick St. Esprit as Robert Hicks
- Alex Russell as Jim Street
- Kenny Johnson as Dominique Luca
- Jay Harrington as David “Deacon” Kay
- David Lim as Victor Tan
- Rochelle Aytes as Nichelle Carmichael
- Anna Enger Ritch as Zoe Powell
Why Is S.W.A.T. Ending on CBS?
When S.W.A.T. was originally canceled in May 2023, Deadline reported that CBS and Sony TV could not reach a financial agreement to renew the series.
The site reported that over the last few years, early renewals “had come with the network keeping the license fee unchanged, which had put more and more pressure on the budget and further squeezed the show’s profit margins since costs of producing TV shows increase every year.” As a result, Sony was allegedly not willing to go for another renewal at a flat license fee as that “would compromise the show’s financial model.”
The Hollywood Reporter also blamed the cancellation on “the current economics of the TV business, in which networks and streamers are prioritizing full ownership of their series.”
However, Moore is still not convinced that Season 7 will be the show’s last. In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Moore hinted that he’s still optimistic S.W.A.T. will continue.
“Oh man, its been such a good run. And, you know, this is my 30th year in the game, so I pinch myself,” Moore told the site. “[It’s been] seven years of a really fun show. And the word on the street is it’s our final season — but, you know, I’m an optimist.”
Check out the teaser for Season 7 of S.W.A.T.
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