TV on the Bubble: Which Shows Will Be Back Next Season?

When the 2024-2025 broadcast television season came to an end, a few shows still didn't know if they would be coming back in the fall. CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and The CW had dozens of decisions to make on shows like Doctor Odyssey and The Hunting Party, while fans waited in nervous anticipation to see if their favorite scripted shows will be renewed or canceled. 

We learned the fates of nearly all broadcast shows at the end of May, when the major networks announced their fall schedules, and a few more announcements have been made since then. Here's a recap of every scripted show that was "on the bubble" — meaning it hadn't been renewed or canceled yet — and our best guess at the time on whether each series would be coming back for another season or not. 

Reality television shows, which operate on different budgets and production cycles than scripted television and therefore are under different scrutiny when it comes to renewals and cancellations, were not included in our list.

Note: All ratings information was sourced from TVSeriesFinale.com. For more details on what's been renewed and canceled, head over to our renewal scorecard for everything announced in April and in May, and check out our latest roundup of all the renewals and cancellations in June. 

UPDATE: ABC has canceled Doctor Odyssey after one season — at least for now.

PREVIOUSLY: ABC has made decisions on all of its scripted shows except for one: Doctor Odyssey. The drama starring Joshua Jackson as a cruise ship doctor is sinking in the ratings, sitting near the bottom of ABC's scripted shows in the coveted 18-49 demographic, and it's reportedly expensive to make. But with proven hitmaker Ryan Murphy, one of the co-creators, in the middle of a massive production deal with Disney, we think ABC — and parent company Disney — might throw Doctor Odyssey a life preserver to keep their relationship afloat.

UPDATE: CBS has canceled The Equalizer after five seasons.

PREVIOUSLY: CBS renewed a bunch of shows all at once back in February, but left off the list was Queen Latifah's The Equalizer, the only scripted show on the network that doesn't know if it will be back for another season. Deadline reports that the odds are "50-50" it could be back for a 13-episode final season, but CBS also passed on a potential Equalizer spin-off, which would have starred Titus Welliver, which means it could be getting out of The Equalizer business. However, CBS renewed two shows with lower ratings — Elsbeth and NCIS: Sydney — so there's still hope.

UPDATE: NBC has renewed Brilliant Minds for Season 2.

PREVIOUSLY: The new medical drama Brilliant Minds is in the middle of NBC's scripted series in terms of ratings, and because the network needs something other than One Chicago and Law & Order on its airwaves, we're guessing that Zachary Quinto's Oliver Wolf has a good chance at another shift.

UPDATE: NBC has renewed Chicago Fire for Season 14.

PREVIOUSLY: We don't know what's taking NBC so long either. Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago P.D. — NBC's three highest-rated shows — will certainly be renewed (maybe for multiple seasons) any day now. 

UPDATE: NBC has renewed Chicago Med for Season 11.

PREVIOUSLY: As NBC's highest-rated show — yes, even higher than Chicago Fire — Chicago Med is certainly coming back. So what's the holdup? In all likelihood, NBC is prepping deals with Dick Wolf, the creator of the franchise, and will announce renewals for all the Chicago shows at once. 

UPDATE: NBC has renewed Chicago P.D. for Season 13.

PREVIOUSLY: Like its Windy City siblings, Chicago P.D. is in no danger of being canceled unless NBC decides it wants to do something stupid. Expect a renewal announcement for all three One Chicago shows soon.

UPDATE: NBC has canceled Found after two seasons.

PREVIOUSLY: Found sits just below the middle of NBC's scripted series ratings and has experienced many of the same precipitous year-over-year drops as other Season 2 shows, but when compared to the numbers of The Irrational — which also debuted in 2023 — it looks a lot better. That could earn a third season for the highly serialized show.

UPDATE: NBC has canceled Grosse Pointe Garden Society after one season.

PREVIOUSLY: One of NBC's new midseason entries, the playful murder mystery Grosse Pointe Garden Society is about a gardening club burying a secret — hint: it's a dead body — but it's no secret that this show, which was recently moved to Friday nights, is probably already six feet under. As NBC's lowest-rated series by a lot, it would take a miracle (or at least Miracle-Gro) to save this show from cancellation.

UPDATE: NBC has renewed The Hunting Party for Season 2.

PREVIOUSLY: Melissa Roxburgh's new drama The Hunting Party sits just outside NBC's top 10 scripted shows (out of 15 shows) in the ratings, but it still has a shot at being renewed for Season 2, though not a good one. 

UPDATE: NBC has canceled The Irrational after two seasons.

PREVIOUSLY: It's quite rational to think that Jesse L. Martin's drama The Irrational has already aired its last episode. Only Grosse Pointe Garden Society has lower ratings for NBC, and The Irrational's ratings are down almost 40 percent from Season 1.

UPDATE: NBC has renewed Law & Order for Season 25.

PREVIOUSLY: It's going to take more than just slightly declining ratings to kill off one of TV's longest running franchises. It wouldn't be unsurprising if NBC announces renewals of all of its Dick Wolf shows at once.

UPDATE: NBC has renewed Law & Order: SVU for Season 27.

PREVIOUSLY: NBC's primetime schedule is essentially a bedrock of Dick Wolf shows and a rotating cast of other series that are canceled after a few seasons. That won't change this year, and Law & Order: SVU will almost certainly be back for Season 27.

UPDATE: NBC has canceled Lopez vs. Lopez after three seasons.

PREVIOUSLY: George Lopez's sitcom has an easy Friday night slot that doesn't require big ratings to stay afloat, but it still did something hardly any broadcast shows did this year: It increased its total viewership from its previous season. It's a cheap show to make and takes up an undesirable slot. It should return.

UPDATE: NBC has canceled Night Court after three seasons.

PREVIOUSLY: The Night Court revival got off to a great start in Season 1 but has steadily lost viewers since, reaching a series low 1.56 million viewers in its most recent episode (April 22). There's not much reason to believe that NBC will want to invest in a fourth season. Our guess is that this court is as good as adjourned.

UPDATE: NBC has canceled Suits LA after one season.

PREVIOUSLY: NBC just learned that if it worked on Netflix, it won't necessarily work somewhere else. The Suits spin-off — fast-tracked because of the original's wild surge in popularity on streaming years after its original run — has been a disaster for the network, landing near the bottom of NBC's ratings this season. NBC shouldn't renew it, but familiar IP has made network execs make stupider decisions before.

UPDATE: The CW has renewed All American for an eighth and final season.

PREVIOUSLY: The fact that All American has made it to a seventh season is impressive. The show has seen its budget slashed, several regular cast members have exited, and The CW has razed most of its roster of shows in favor of cheaper international co-productions under new ownership. All American's luck has to run out soon as The CW continues its identity shift.

You'd think Good Cop/Bad Cop would be a shoo-in for cancellation seeing how it ranks dead last in ratings on The CW's roster with a 0.025 rating in the 18-49 demo (that's not a typo, it's a point-OH-two-five). But the Leighton Meester blue sky cop show is a co-production between The CW, Australia's Stan, and Roku, so not only is The CW paying a fraction of the price of a normal show for it, but it only has a fraction of the decision-making input, too. This one can go either way.

Don't expect a decision on The CW's Sherlock & Daughter anytime soon, as it only premiered in mid-April. The early numbers aren't great, but it's way too soon to predict what will happen with the David Thewlis-starring series about the famed detective and his long-lost daughter (Blu Hunt).

UPDATE: CBC has renewed Wild Cards for two more seasons, but the show's status on The CW is still up in the air.

PREVIOUSLY: Like many of The CW's series, Wild Cards is a co-production with a foreign studio — in this case, Canada's CBC — so the decision to bring back the odd couple detective series isn't The CW's alone. That said, The CW will likely want this one back, as it's rated No. 4 on the list of the network's scripted shows. 

The Fox crime anthology Accused is having a rough Season 2 after coming out of the gate hot in Season 1 due to a post-NFL playoff slot. Now Fox must decide whether the series, which uses new big-name guest stars in each of its standalone episodes, is worth the price when it's only performing better than a few other shows in the 18-49 demo. 

UPDATE: Fox has canceled Alert: Missing Persons Unit after three seasons.

PREVIOUSLY: The alert sirens should be going off for Alert: Missing Persons Unit, which is currently airing its third season and sitting second to last in Fox's ratings in the 18-49 demo. In all likelihood, it's about to be added to its own missing persons list.

UPDATE: Fox has renewed Animal Control for a fourth season.

PREVIOUSLY: Joel McHale's sitcom Animal Control has quietly been a success for Fox thanks to the network's low bar for live-action comedies in recent years. Given that it's right in the middle of Fox's scripted series in ratings, it's likely to return. 

UPDATE: Fox has canceled The Cleaning Lady after four seasons.

PREVIOUSLY: Barring a miracle, The Cleaning Lady, which is dead last in ratings and viewership among Fox's dramas, will be swept under the rug.

UPDATE: Fox has renewed Going Dutch for a second season.

PREVIOUSLY: The new Denis Leary military comedy Going Dutch has been entirely mediocre in ratings since it premiered at the beginning of the year. If Animal Control comes back (which we think it will), Fox could give Going Dutch its marching orders in favor of launching a new live-action comedy to pair with Animal Control next season.

Fox has seven animated comedies on its roster, and The Great North has the worst numbers of all of them. But regular rules don't apply to animated series on Fox, which loves to deploy them all over its schedule at all times of the year, so The Great North has a shot at returning for Season 6.

UPDATE: Fox has renewed Grimsburg for Season 3.

PREVIOUSLY: Grimsburg, currently in its second season, is in a difficult spot. It's sitting relatively close to the bottom of Fox's ratings, in a spot that isn't good enough to guarantee that it will be renewed but is also not bad enough to be sure that it won't be renewed. It could go either way.  

UPDATE: Fox has canceled Rescue: HI-Surf after one season.

PREVIOUSLY: The Hawaii-set lifeguard show has had an impressive first season, with ratings just under another freshman scripted drama, Doc. Doc has already been renewed; we're guessing you can expect Rescue: HI-Surf to get renewed soon, too.

More on renewals and cancellations:

• All the canceled and renewed shows in May
• All the canceled and renewed shows in April
• All the canceled and renewed shows in March
• All the canceled and renewed shows in February
• All the canceled and renewed shows in January

More on spring TV: 

• The complete guide to spring TV
• The new TV shows coming this spring
• The most anticipated shows coming this spring