Why Was Young Sheldon Cancelled? CBS Accused of Making a ‘Stupid Business Decision’
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The Cooper family has officially said goodbye. CBS’ hit sitcom Young Sheldon ended with Season 7 and closed out Sheldon Cooper’s story for good in May 2024. But why was Young Sheldon cancelled and what was the real reason behind ending the series? We have all the details from the creator’s mouth, ahead.
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Young Sheldon is the prequel series to the massively successful CBS show The Big Bang Theory, which ran from 2007 to 2019. It follows a young Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage) as he grows up in East Texas. Jim Parsons, who originated the titular character on Big Bang, had the idea for the series, which he passed to producers Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro. Set in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Young Sheldon first premiered in 2017. Parsons also narrates the show and serves as an executive producer.
In addition to Armitage as Sheldon, the series also stars Lance Barber, Zoe Perry, Reagan Revord, Montana Jordan, Annie Potts and Emily Osment, who make up the Cooper clan.
In November 2023, Deadline reported that the Season 7 would be Young Sheldon‘s final season. While fans were devastated by the news, they also knew that the sitcom would end eventually based on certain plot points in Big Bang. For more information on why Young Sheldon was cancelled by CBS.
Why was Young Sheldon cancelled?
According to executive producer Steve Holland, ending Young Sheldon with Season 7 made the most sense for the show because of the timeline established on The Big Bang Theory.
“There are certain things we know happen in Sheldon’s life at 14,” Holland explained to reporters ahead of the Season 7 premiere, per Deadline. “We started talking about the future of show, and what it looked like. This is the right time for this story to come to an end, knowing that at 14, he goes off to Cal Tech.”
In The Big Bang Theory, viewers learned that Sheldon began working toward his doctorate’s degree at the California Institute of Technology when he was just 14 years old. He later became a senior theoretical physicist for the school, which is how he met all of his friends, including fellow physicist Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar).
Young Sheldon creator Chuck Lorre also feels that Season 7 was a good stopping point for the series, explaining to The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 podcast: “We have reached the time in the cycle of Young Sheldon where Iain Armitage is 14 years old now. He’s pushing 6 feet tall.” He continued: “We’ve told that story, and the remainder of his path leading up to The Big Bang Theory happens at Caltech in California. Following him from 8 to 15 seems like the natural life span of the show.”
Additionally, the series is one of CBS’ top-rated shows at the moment, and Holland noted that he would rather the show end on a high note. “It felt like the right time to end it strong while it was on top,” he said. Armitage chimed in: “Can’t we just leave it at I’m tall and cool and I look like Jim [Parsons] now?”
While most of the creators agreed that Season 7 made the most sense to end Young Sheldon, not all of the cast was on board to end the series. In an interview with Variety in April 2024, Annie Potts, who plays Connie “MeeMaw” Tucker, called the cancellation a “stupid business decision.” “This one was especially hard because I was completely unprepared. I was shocked. I mean, the No. 1 show on network TV, No. 1 on Netflix,” she said. “We’re, I think, all that people watch on TikTok besides a couple of recipes for pasta. It just seemed like such a stupid business move. Forgive me, but I don’t know. If a show is starting to drag or lag or have a lack of stories or whatever, then you kind of see it coming. We were totally ambushed by this. I was, anyway.”
Armitage, for his part, understood both Potts’ and the creators’ points of view to end or keep the series running. “I totally get what Annie means. It’s also just hard in a really weird way that I can only really see if I step back and try and take a global view, which is hard,” he told Variety. “I mean, I’m not going to get to see Annie Potts every day. This is a real loss for me. More than anyone. I definitely think we could have done a lot more.”
Although Sheldon’s story may be ending, Young Sheldon won’t be the last we see of the Cooper family. A spin-off series centered on Sheldon’s older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) and his fiancée Mandy McAllister (Emily Osment) is currently in the works. While the full cast has not been confirmed yet, the new series certainly leaves room for other Young Sheldon fan-favorites to return.
Young Sheldon is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
Watch ‘Young Sheldon’
Check out our gallery on Iain Armitage then and now to see how much the Young Sheldon star has grown up.
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