(CBS)
It’s elementary. All things must end sometime and now, the end is in sight for the Elementary TV show. It’s been announced that there won’t be an eighth season but, on the positive side, a seventh season of 13 episodes will wrap up the crime drama. The final year will bring the show’s tally to 154 episodes.
Airing on the CBS television network, Elementary follows detective Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Doctor Joan Watson (Lucy Liu). This modern-day adaptation of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective stories features some new spins on the classic crime-solving duo. Instead of assisting Scotland Yard, they crack New York City’s toughest cases. A former surgeon who lost a patient, as well as her license to practice, Watson began as Sherlock’s sober companion. Eventually, their relationship evolved into an investigative partnership. The crime drama also stars Aidan Quinn as Captain Thomas Gregson and Jon Michael Hill as Detective Marcus Bell.
According to Deadline, when Elementary was renewed for a seventh season, it was decided that those episodes would also end the show. Why? It’s surely no coincidence that Liu and Miller’s contracts would have had to be renegotiated. The show’s network ratings have also continued to dwindle but the series is a lucrative money-maker in syndication and in international markets.
“A lot of parties came together and talked about their positions on the show — both in terms of business and in terms of creative — and we all decided that this was an opportune time to say goodbye to a show that has been very, very good to us,” CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl said.
Added executive producer Carl Beverly, “[Series creator Rob Doherty] set out to tell a story, and it feels like he has accomplished what he had set out to do. The actors, the crew and the cast feel that way, and we feel that. So are grateful and celebrating what we had and looking forward to the future.”
SPOILER ALERT The cast and crew had been unsure if they would get a seventh-year renewal so they’d already shot the sixth season finale as an appropriate end for the series. While the sixth season finale left our heroes in London, they will be returning to New York early in season seven. Holmes nemesis Odin Reichenbach, to be played by James Frein, will show up in episode five.
There will also be a time jump in the seventh season. Doherty said, “Something that I knew I wanted to do was move forward in time a bit with the characters by the very end… (In the books,) there was a period when Sherlock and Watson were not together, they went down very different paths, and their lives were very different from having been apart. We felt that would be appropriate for our show. A lot was season seven working towards that, how can we tell a larger story that would allow us to devise a finale that sets in not so distant future.”
CBS has not announced a premiere date for season seven but it will surely air sometime in 2019. Season six aired over the summer of 2018, ending in early September.
What do you think? Are you a fan of the Elementary TV show? Are you sorry that there won’t be an eighth season or, is season seven the right time to end the show?
I would love to see Holmes continue to develop as a person. Now that we are into the final season and have seen his father killed it begs the question of what will happen to his fathers empire. How will he handle this loss long term, and will it give his live a new perspective. I know the decision to end the show is based on money/ratings, and in this “snap chat” attention thinking world we live today it is tough to create a serious show the masses will follow long term. How about a 2 hour mini series once… Read more »
This show has been one of my favorites to watch and I am so sorry to see you end a show that is so smart and so much better than some of the trash that’s is still on t.v. Please don’t end this program.
I really like this show. Will the last episode provide an acceptable closure to the show, or will it end awkwardly? I hate it when shows are cancelled without an ending that ties up all the details of the series!
My daughter and I are so completely upset that this network is taking this wonderful program “Elementary” off of the air!!! It seems as though these broadcasters take off shows in which are intelligent, smart and family friendly. This is disgusting and disturbing. Reality shows are ignorant and give our family the wrong idea for the ability to use their head instead of learning the right way to treat people! Please give us another season of one of the best shows on the TV that there is. It just boggles the mind at the way these things happen!!!
It is one of my favorite shows but the storyline right now sucks. Then his father is murdered. This is not the interesting, sometimes humorous show that I enjoyed. So good riddance!
Hate when they cancel intelligent programs on TV, then add more drivel….
Hate that it’s ending. I agree that it’s one of the few good shows anymore.
Agree, I love watching it, so much better as the two character seem perfect for the role.
Wish this series could continue. Great show…..
One of the few good show on broadcast television. You will be missed.
Love the show. Unique and fascinating. Great cast. I’ll really miss it.
Sorry to see Elementary end. One of my all time favorite TV series. Big Johnny Lee Miller fan and have admired Lucy Liu for years. Thank you for seven terrific seasons. Best wishes to all
would love to see the show continue in London
I agree totally
No not Elementary. At least we are getting one more season. Why all the interesting and challenging ones, instead of ones that are void of thinking.
I love Elementary. I hate to see it end.
I love Elementary. Jonny Miller is a good actor and enjoy watching him. Having a female Watson was a clever idea. I do hope we will be able to see season 7 very soon.