Back in 2020, members of the human race born after September 22, 2005 awoke to a strange and novel sight: A day of their lives that was not overshadowed by the ongoing existence of CBS serial killer procedural Criminal Minds. But this unsub lacuna wasn’t fated to last; by 2022, folks at Paramount had realized they’d gone two whole years without a Criminal Mind being caught, and revived the show, as Criminal Minds: Evolution, for another four seasons on Paramount+. Now, though, the news has finally been handed down: Criminal Minds: Evolution‘s upcoming 2027 season, its 20th, will be its last. The Minds will be Criminalized no more.
The big takeaway here, meanwhile, has less to do with worries about this one particular show, Deadline notes, than the trends of modern streaming. Criminal Minds: Evolution, which continues to enjoy perfectly good ratings whenever it runs one of its 10-episode seasons—most recently in May through July of this year—is, nevertheless, an anachronism for the current iteration of Paramount+: A decidedly traditional scripted TV show that just happens to be getting uploaded to a streaming service instead of broadcast on the airwaves. Paramount+ has been giving pretty much all of these shows (including SEAL Team and NCIS spin-off Tony & Siva) the axe lately, and while Criminal Minds‘ cancellation is technically the first such move since the company completed its recent acquisition with Warner Bros., it continues a trend that’s been in progression for years at this point.
Deadline also notes that the final season of the show is already in the can, and was filmed before the news was handed out, meaning the series probably isn’t going to get anything like a traditional ending to appease what is now more than two decades of fans. While memorializing the series in a statement, showrunner Erica Messer—who’s been with the series as a writer since it started way back in 2005—noted that she was “suddenly navigating the end of this chapter,” suggesting producers on the series hadn’t been told the cancellation was in the works.
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