CBS Gave Up on Network TV's Best Show - 'Person of Interest' - Too Soon

by Julian Spivey
We all could see it coming for quite some time now, but on Wednesday (March 16) CBS finally announced the cancellation of the best show currently on network television – “Person of Interest.” The show’s upcoming fifth season will be its last.

“Person of Interest” saw a quick decline in ratings for the fourth season, or really since the midway point in the third season when it killed off one of its original characters played by Taraji P. Henson, who has since gone on to win a Golden Globe Award for her performance on the Fox hit “Empire.”

Another reason some believe for the fast decline in ratings is the fact that the show took on a more serial tone, instead of a procedural episodic style that many viewers of CBS crime shows are used to seeing. While this is really one of the aspects that made “Person of Interest” one of the best shows on television, the lack of a “crime of the week” storyline has evidently run a portion of the live viewers off.

CBS will debut the fifth and final season of “Person of Interest” on Tuesday, May 3 and will “burn off” the 13-episode season quickly airing the show both on Monday and Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. until its series finale on Tuesday, June 21.

The J.J. Abrams-produced drama will in all likelihood at least get somewhat of a worthy sendoff as producers of the show saw the writing on the wall and have reportedly filmed an ending that would work as a farewell to the show if it was indeed canceled.

While fans of “Person of Interest” should be excited that the show’s return is close (although still a month and a half away, when we’ve waited an entire year for new episodes) there is reason for us to still be frankly pissed off at CBS.

CBS essentially has given up on ‘POI’ way too early. The numbers may have been in decline, but there was reason enough to give its fifth season a shot to succeed before cancelling the show. The reasoning being that since “Person of Interest” ended its fourth season last spring the show has both added all four seasons to the popular streaming service Netflix and has gone into syndication, including on the popular cable network WGN. This means that the show has almost certainly gained at least a little bit of an audience, which could’ve boosted ratings come its season five debut. Even a slight gain in the ratings would’ve meant that the show’s Nielsen numbers likely would’ve been comparable to shows like “Hawaii Five-O” and freshman series “Code Black,” which the network hasn’t given up on.

It’s unlikely, but the show’s addition on Netflix and going into syndication could have given ‘POI’ the same kind of boost that CBS’s highest-rated drama for almost a decade “NCIS” got about a decade ago when it entered syndication and gained a whole new audience on the USA Network. ­People who never knew “NCIS” existed on CBS started watching the show during weeknights and through weekend marathons on USA and then followed the show to its original timeslot on CBS on Tuesday nights and the show’s ratings skyrocketed unlike we’d ever seen from a show four or five season into its run.

The “NCIS” boost from syndication is not a common phenomenon, but it would’ve been nice for CBS to at least give this potential boost a chance to work – who knows, “Person of Interest” may have gone up considerably in the Nielsen ratings.

CBS gave up on this show too early, but executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman are still grateful for the chance to tell their story over five wonderful seasons. The duo told IGN.com: “We’re extremely excited to be able to share this final season with the fans. We’re eternally grateful to our amazing cast and crew, as well as our partners at the studio and network. Most of all, we want to thank the show’s fans – the best fans in the world. This subversive little paranoia-inducing cyberpunk-thriller is for you and would not have been possible without your support. As life has come to imitate ‘Person of Interest,’ it’s been our great privilege to work on the show for the past five seasons. We can’t wait for you to experience this thrilling and final chapter.” 

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