‘SEAL Team’s David Boreanaz on Moving to Paramount+: ‘It’s Going to Be a Good Challenge’
Q&A
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SEAL Team is moving over to Paramount+ for its fifth season (after airing four episodes on CBS in fall 2021), and while much is in flux about what that means, series star and executive producer David Boreanaz (who plays Bravo 1, Jason Hayes) is excited about what’s next.
“The four episodes that we have on at CBS will be a great launching pad into the new world of streaming, and I know we’ll be able to take our show to a deeper, darker place as far as storytelling is concerned,” he tells TV Insider. “I’m excited about that, and it’s going to be a good challenge for us, and I know that the cast and the crew are up for that.”
While nothing is confirmed, Boreanaz does say that he’ll be directing more. (He’s already been behind the camera for four episodes of the military drama.)
Read on for more from Boreanaz as he looks ahead to SEAL Team on Paramount+.
Will the move change the approach to the series at all?
David Boreanaz: I think that the approach will be the same, to be honest with you. We will premiere on premiere week for [the first] four episodes. The biggest difference is that obviously in the streaming world, there are no commercials, so we could tell our stories a lot better, I think. That’s not to say we are not doing a good job of doing that now. I don’t want to say that it’s going to be completely different, but we’re going to be able to go a little bit deeper and darker and lighter in a lot of areas. You have the ability to be a little bit more creative and you definitely have more screen time. We’re looking at probably 18 more minutes of show time there.
Sonja Flemming/CBS
So the episodes are going to be longer? You won’t be sticking to the 40 or so minutes?
All of that stuff is kind of in motion for us now since we’re so new to this transition. We’re kind of in transition right now.
Is there anything that you’re looking forward to being able to do over on streaming that you couldn’t on CBS?
Standards and practices, obviously, is kind of a handcuff on network television. I’m proud of the show and the character and what Jason Hayes has accomplished. And I look forward to telling more stories and I’ve always said it’s good to go to the darker places and open and shed light into them so it can help these real men and women that are suffering, whether it’s PTSD or TBI. With a show like this, especially military shows, it’s a shame that it’s not recognized across the board from the people that are the voters and the Emmys and whatnot. I just feel like they don’t look at military shows, and I think that’s sad. I’m so proud of the crew and the cast and everybody who works on the show and it’s a shame that gets overlooked. But that’s the way it is, I think, in Hollywood.
CBS
Because you do tackle these serious topics and have these emotional moments with the team members and the action scenes in the episodes.
The episode I directed last week was so challenging, and I look at the work that we did there and the amount of work we did with helicopters and especially with this season finale, what [director] Chris [Chulack] did, and what J. Michael Muro does. I could take the show and you give me your top five shows on a network right now, and I’ll tell you we’ll compete and beat those shows straight out, as far as quality is concerned. Now you want quantity, I guess, network television is about quantity and it’s no disrespect to that at all. I love network television. I think the challenge of network television is being able to push the boundaries and be creative in that aspect. And our show really has gone above and beyond as far as marrying the action and how real that is with the emotional arcs that our characters have undertaken and where they’ve taken us for four seasons. So I’m proud of that.
Have you talked about episode count for Season 5 because of this transition?
The episode count for streaming shows is always 10 episodes. The network has given us four episodes as a launching pad into that streaming world. The environment will dictate the number of episodes that are ordered.
Sonja Flemming/CBS
What are you hoping to explore with Jason next season?
I’m looking forward to [seeing] where he stands, especially with his children on top of where he is as a leader, becoming that true Jedi that is almost wiser and better emotionally and physically, and being able to use that as a sounding board to listen to his team members and his brothers, [with] what adversities they may be going through and how he can relate to that.
SEAL Team, Season 5, Fall 2021, CBS and Paramount+
