The military drama “SEAL Team” survived a threat of cancellation at the end of season 4, but the show’s return is not quite what fans may have expected. The first four episodes from season 5 will air on CBS before the show moves to its new streaming home at Paramount +.
Billed as a “Special ‘SEAL Team’ event,” CBS will air its episodes on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT starting Oct. 10, with each episode available the next day on Paramount+. After the fourth episode airs on Oct. 31, Paramount+ will debut the fifth episode shortly after the West Coast airing of episode 4 on CBS.
That’s a lot to untangle, so let’s take a break and enjoy the Season 5 trailer.
Once the show has migrated to Paramount+, new episodes will be added to the streamer each Sunday. A move to streaming should allow a bit more creative freedom. At least we may hear the SEALs begin to speak more like actual Navy members. Executive producer Spencer Hudnut promises that the show’s fans won’t be disappointed. “It’s the same show,” Hudnut told TVInsider. “The language might be a little saltier, as it probably would be when people are shooting at you.”
The season opens with the first episode of a two-part story called “Trust, But Verify: Part 1.” According to CBS, Team Bravo will be “shocked when they learn a training exercise is really cover for a covert mission to get a weapons expert out of one of the most dangerous countries in the world.”
CBS shares a parent company with Paramount+, so the producers know it’s their job to lure new viewers to the streaming service when the show makes the change. To that end, they’re telling a two-part story about a mass casualty terror attack in Africa. Part one will be episode 4 on CBS, and part two will be available only on Paramount+.
Anyone who’s ever followed a television show knows what’s going to happen: Someone’s life will be hanging in the balance at the end of the CBS run, and we’ll all have to sign up for Paramount+ to find out what happens next.
The producers promise at least one midseason episode that deals with the fallout from the events at the end of the Afghanistan War. The team had a script ready to shoot but revised the story in light of the real-life events on the ground in Kabul.
There’s a 14-episode order for the upcoming season (four on CBS, 10 for Paramount+). Will this season represent the end of the line for “SEAL Team,” or can it find a new life as a streaming-only drama?
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