‘SEAL Team’ Season 4 Premiere Date Delayed, Will Now Be 2-Hour Episode

CBS News’ election coverage has forced the network to make some changes to its premiere schedule. The changes have pushed the SEAL Team Season 4 premiere all the way to the first week of December. CBS will air two new episodes on Wednesday, Dec. 2, beginning at 9 p.m. ET. The series stars David Boreanaz as Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Jason Hayes, who leads an elite Navy SEAL team.

SEAL Team was originally scheduled to start on Wednesday, Nov. 25, but that night will now have two episodes of The Amazing Race airing, reports TVLine. S.W.A.T., which kicks off its new season on Wednesday, Nov. 11, will air its fourth episode that night. CBS has been aired election coverage specials on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10 p.m. ET, pushing scripted and reality shows out of that slot. On Friday, CBS will air another election special at 10 p.m. ET.

In the Season 4 premiere, titled “God of War,” the Bravo Team arrives in the Spin Ghar Mountain Range to capture the leader of a terrorist group and the son of another high-value target who Jason took down early in his career. After the team is attacked, Jason and their dog Cerberus are separated from the others. The episode was directed by Boreanaz and was initially planned for Season 3 before the coronavirus pandemic shut production down in Match. The second episode airing on Dec. 2 is titled “Forever War,” in which the search for the terrorist continues.

Although SEAL Team is set in the present day, showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TVLine they have no plans to include the coronavirus pandemic in the show’s stories. “We talked about it, and because we have to finish what we started, to all of the sudden be in a pandemic world felt wrong,” Hudnut said. “We also want to give people an escape.”

While the show might not directly deal with the pandemic, Hudnut said some of the themes the show touches on, like the dedication of those on the flint lines, are reflected in the series. “Thematically, it’s a show about honoring those who raise their hand to run into the fire first, the people who put the greater good above their own,” he said. “So I do think the audience will recognize some themes that we’ve all had to deal with the past couple of months.”