• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, December 4, 2023

CBS seems to be in the midst of a prime-time housecleaning.

In the space of a little over two weeks last month, the network announced it is saying good-bye to three of its established hits.

That’s an unusual number of these types of announcements to be released in such a short time frame. 

Two of them -- the comedies “Young Sheldon” and “Bob [Hearts] Abishola” -- will have their series finales next May.

The other one is the long-running cop drama “Blue Bloods,” starring Tom Selleck (photo above). 

In an unusual plan, the show’s fourteenth and final season will be seen in two parts -- one this season and the other next season.

Plans call for the show to return for the premiere of its final season on February 6, 2024 and then presumably stretch to May (although no specific date was announced).

The show will take a break for the summer and then return for the second half of its final season in fall 2024, CBS said. 

No date was given for the “Blue Bloods” final episode, but it will be in the fall, the network said.

The unusual schedule for the final season of “Blue Bloods” no doubt results from the writers’ and actors’ strikes that shut down production for the better part of six months this year.

The plan also indicates that the “Blue Bloods” final season will consist of the full-season complement of episodes -- generally 22 of them.

But the final-season plan for CBS’s two comedies calls for both of them to end in May.

This likely means that their final seasons will consist of half the customary number of full-season episodes -- probably another consequence of the strike.

“Young Sheldon” will return for its seventh and final season on February 15. The show will end with a one-hour season finale scheduled for May 16, CBS said.

“Bob [Hearts] Abishola” will start its final, abbreviated fifth season on February 12 and end on May 13.

The exit of these two comedies leaves only two other sitcoms on the CBS prime-time slate -- “The Neighborhood” and “Ghosts.”

“The Neighborhood” is scheduled to return for its sixth season on February 12. “Ghosts” starts its third season on February 15.