Madam Secretary won’t be elected for another term. CBS announced Wednesday ahead of its upfront presentation that the recently announced sixth season of the political drama would be its last.
The Tea Leoni-led drama will conclude in the fall with an abbreviated 10-episode final season.
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CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl made the announcement Wednesday, noting that the network wanted to reward longtime fans with a proper ending for the show.
“We’re happy and excited to do that for Tea and the writers of the show and the audience. I think it’s important to respect the audience. It’s hard when a show just goes away. We like to be able to do this, and send the show off with a great deal of respect and celebration,” Kahl said, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Series co-creators Barbara Hall and Lori McCreary previously told TVLine after the season 5 finale that upcoming episodes will likely chronicle Elizabeth’s experiences as a candidate in a political primary and presidential election.
“We’ve always been about pulling back the curtain on the State Department and showing the process of diplomacy, so this is going to be pulling back the curtain on a campaign and everything that that involves,” Hall said.
Madam Secretary has been on the bubble at the end of several of its recent seasons, and wrapped season 5 on April 21 with a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic group and 4.8 million total viewers, which means it held steady in its demo but brought in its second-smallest audience ever.
Madam Secretary will join the similarly abbreviated final season of fellow drama series Criminal Minds in wrapping up during the 2019-20 broadcast season. Other popular non-CBS series that are ending next season are Fox’s Empire, ABC’s Modern Family, NBC’s Blindspot and The CW’s Supernatural and Arrow.
The move to end Madam Secretary with an abbreviated season helps explain CBS’ decision to bring back a whopping 18 series next season while also adding four new dramas to its schedules.
The announcement arrives just one day before the network will say goodbye to its most popular series The Big Bang Theory, which wraps its run after 12 seasons as TV’s No. 1 comedy.
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NEW YORK CITY – DECEMBER 19: "Toil and Trouble" – Elsbeth is thrown into the world of television after the showrunner of a long-running police procedural is brutally murdered in his office, and although it appears to be the act of a disgruntled fan, she begins to suspect the show's longtime star Regina Coburn (Laurie Metcalf) who yearns for artistic fulfillment. Meanwhile, Judge Crawford (Michael Emerson) continues to be a thorn in Elsbeth's side, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 19 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured (L-R): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Carra Patterson as Kaya Blanke. (Photo by Michael Parmelee/CBS via Getty Images)
