Ask Matt: ‘Sheldon’s Final Act, Shows in Limbo & More
Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, but there’s always closed-captioning.)
One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines or developments here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]. Look for Ask Matt columns on most Tuesdays.
Bazinga and Away!
Question: Why is Young Sheldon being canceled? The show is always in the Top 25. Is it because he is outgrowing the part? I always liked all the supporting players’ parts. — Don K.
Matt Roush: This is a TV year where the trend of many long-running shows taking a final lap has less to do with ratings than with economics and the natural lifespan of a TV show. With Young Sheldon, I’d think the calculus is as much creative as it is financial. Iain Armitage and the Sheldon character have both aged past the point of the series’ original novelty, and as we’ve often pointed out (though I’m not an expert on financial dealmaking), when a show hits its seventh season as Young Sheldon is doing, nearly every aspect of the show’s production becomes more expensive going forward for the network licensing the show and the home studio (even if both are from the same company, which isn’t the case here). The good news for fans of the colorful characters on this series is that they’re already talking seriously about spinning off the Big Bang spinoff, with a series focused on Georgie (Montana Jordan) and Mandy (Emily Osment), most likely in the studio-audience format of The Big Bang Theory instead of the single-camera approach of Young Sheldon.
What a Drag!
Comment: With the explosion of streaming over the past several years, I have pretty much kept up with what shows air when and where, but now it seems some networks are making it more complicated than ever to watch popular shows. Take for example RuPaul’s Drag Race, inarguably a huge hit — but why does it change almost every season how to watch? This most current season can only be watched live on the MTV cable channel. The MTV app is no more, and the content is now on Paramount+, but you can only watch Drag Race next day (whereas the last All Stars season premiered exclusively on Paramount+). It seems backward that the main way to watch your biggest show live is if you have a cable channel subscription. I’m used to these companies trying to squeeze every dollar out of viewers, but this move seems both backward and confusing. If you have countless people having to search on forums to figure out how to watch your show from season to season, something is wrong. — Larry B.
Matt Roush: This is such an interesting dilemma for our cord-cutting times. I’ll admit I don’t have my head entirely around it, being fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to still be living in a linear world where I can record what I want to see on cable or broadcast, and once it’s up on streaming the next day, I can go that route if I so choose. Those who’ve left the cable loop and want to see shows like Drag Race in real-time have more limited options, and I wonder how long it will be before they relax the current restrictions, which exist most likely to keep MTV relevant as a linear channel. (If Drag Race premiered on both platforms simultaneously, that would obviously eat into MTV’s linear ratings.) So that’s the why as far as I can see it. I concede these are very confusing times, and Drag Race’s unusually nomadic past—including All Stars being exclusive to streaming—is an outlier even by today’s standards.
Our Shows Are in Limbo
Question: Will Transplant be back or is it finished? — Chris S.
Matt Roush: There will be a fourth and final season of the Canadian medical drama — the episodes have already aired north of the border — but it doesn’t appear that NBC is going to follow those episodes directly after having aired the Season 3 finale last week. When we’ll see them hasn’t yet been announced, but even though NBC no longer has the big holes on its schedule from the strike delays, I’d expect the network to find a place and a time to show these final episodes. Maybe the summer off-season?
Question: Is CBS going to finish showing Yellowstone episodes? —Sharon Z.
Matt Roush: For now, no. With the network’s full slate of original series back on the air as of this week, CBS will no longer be showing repeats of past seasons. (The network stopped their broadcast run with the end of Season 3.) CBS may eventually decide to show Season 4 and beyond — again, the summer off-season may give them the window to do so — but there is no indication that is in the offing. If you want to catch up, you may have to cross the streaming divide, because Season 4 doesn’t appear to be available on home network Paramount Network’s website at present. (All seasons are available on Peacock.)
Is Déjà vu a Crime?
Question: I have been a devotee of both 20/20 and Dateline NBC for many years. Is it my imagination or are there not many original stories being covered? It seems to me they cover identical stories, either on the same night or very soon afterward! What’s up with that? Have the networks dropped all pretense of covering REAL and original stories? Barbara Walters must be rolling over in her grave at the current iteration of her creation! — Fay B.
Matt Roush: Agreed on how the late Barbara Walters might feel about the newsmagazine she once co-hosted becoming the equivalent of a true-crime blotter. I’m not a devotee of this genre, so can’t give you specifics, but I will say that when I research the topics on a given week’s 20/20, Dateline, or 48 Hours for my “True Crime Watch” blurbs within my daily “Worth Watching” columns for this site, I often find the subject has been covered on one of more rival series (including those ubiquitous Investigation Discovery shows). When it’s a major case like the Idaho State students’ murders, the Gilgo Beach Killer, or the mess with the Murdaughs of South Carolina, I’m not surprised when they overlap. But I’ve noticed that sometimes they go back to the scene of a murder case they’ve covered when there are new developments, and it’s inevitable that some sensational crimes will be fodder for more than one program. This is most definitely not your imagination.
And Finally …
Comment: If it weren’t for TV Insider Magazine, I never would have discovered the series Joe Pickett on the Paramount+ streamer. This is such a well-written and flawlessly acted show that I hate to see it end with Season 2. — Carole O., Minden, NV
Matt Roush: Always happy to give a plug to our monthly streaming publication. But also to lament the premature demise of Joe Pickett, a terrific contemporary Western mystery which had a rough ride from a defunct platform (Spectrum Originals) to the Paramount+ streaming service, where the series fell victim to the current wave of cutbacks. I’d love to see someone revive the show, even as a series of movies (they don’t all have to stretch out over an entire season), but that’s probably a long shot. The good news is that if you like these stories, the C.J. Box novels on which the show is based are great and fast reads. And there are a LOT of them.
That’s all for now. We can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to [email protected] or shoot me a line on X (formerly) Twitter @TVGMMattRoush. (Please include a first name with your question.)
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