Every TV show forced to end early amid the coronavirus pandemic

By Jessica Wedemeyer 8:25am PDT, May 1, 2020

When the 2020 coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, Hollywood reacted quickly, shutting down film and television production around the globe. Countless projects that were in development have now been delayed, including shows that were on the air when the shutdown kicked off in March. Wonderwall.com is taking a look back at every series that was forced to end early, starting with "The Walking Dead." The penultimate episode of the 10th season of the AMC drama aired on April 5. Because post-production on the season finale had yet to be completed when the shutdown occurred, episode 16 will now air as a special sometime later this year. Keep reading to get the scoop on how COVID-19 impacted more of your favorite shows…

The first season of "All Rise" went on a hiatus following its 20th episode on April 13. The CBS legal drama will return on May 4 with a special digitally produced episode that will serve as the season finale. The series has yet to score a season 2 renewal.

The first season of The CW's "Batwoman" took a monthlong hiatus amid the coronavirus pandemic after the 16th episode aired on March 22. The superhero series, which has been renewed for a second season, returned on April 26 and will reportedly conclude on May 17 with the 20th of 22 planned episodes.

Season 7 of NBC's "The Blacklist" was meant to consist of 22 episodes. Instead, it will conclude with its 19th episode on May 15. It's expected to return with an eighth season in the fall.

The first season of "Bob Hearts Abishola" was meant to be 22 episodes, but the CBS sitcom went on hiatus after episode 20 aired on April 13. "There's still room to go," star Billy Gardell told a CBS news station in the San Francisco area. "We have 21 and the season finale. We'll probably do that in August when we come back or September, whatever it takes." The series has yet to score a season 2 renewal.

The fourth season of "The Bold Type" went on a planned hiatus after the 10th episode aired on March 26. The Freeform dramedy will return on June 11. The season was meant to consist of 18 episodes. Instead, it'll conclude two episodes early.

The fourth season of "Bull" was expected to consist of 22 episodes. The CBS legal drama has been on hiatus since the 19th episode aired on April 13. It's unclear if or when the remainder of the season will air. Also unclear? Whether or not the series will be back for a fifth season.

The second season of The CW's "Charmed" was meant to consist of 22 episodes. Instead, it'll come to an end with the 19th episode on May 1. The fantasy drama will be back for a third season.

Season 8 of "Chicago Fire," season 7 of "Chicago P.D." and season 5 of "Chicago Med" ended with their 20th episodes on April 15. All three NBC series were originally meant to have 23-episode seasons and will be back for subsequent seasons.

The third season of The CW's "Dynasty" will conclude on May 8 with its 20th episode — three episodes earlier than originally intended. The prime-time soap will be back for a fourth season.

This one really stings! The sixth and final season of "Empire" was meant to consist of 20 episodes. Unfortunately, the final two episodes were still in production when the shutdown commenced, forcing showrunner Brett Mahoney to cobble together elements from the completed 18th episode and the halfway completed 19th episode so that episode 18 could serve as both the season finale and the series finale … leaving several major questions unanswered. On April 14, The Wrap reported that Danny Strong, who co-created the FOX drama with Lee Daniels, hasn't given up hope of eventually delivering a proper series finale: "We had an ending for the series planned that we all loved, and hopefully someday we'll be able to film it and give the series its proper conclusion," he said.

The second season of the CBS crime drama "FBI" came to an end with its 19th episode on March 31 — four episodes earlier than originally intended. It's unclear what will become of its spinoff, "FBI: Most Wanted," which is scheduled to run new episodes through May 5 — when episode 14 is set to air. CBS has yet to officially renew either series.

"The Flash" went on hiatus amid the coronavirus pandemic after its 15th episode aired on The CW on March 17. Season 6 of the superhero drama, which was meant to consist of 22 episodes, returned on April 21 and will conclude with its 19th episode, though it's unclear if that'll be in May or at a later date. Either way, "The Flash" will be back for a seventh season.

Season 7 of "The Goldbergs" will end one episode early — with its 23rd episode on May 13. It's unclear whether or not the ABC comedy will be back for an eighth season.

The fourth season of "The Good Fight" debuted on April 9, after the coronavirus pandemic forced CBS All Access to cut production on its 10-episde season — only eight episodes were complete when the shutdown kicked off. It's unclear what will become of the final two episodes — or if the legal drama will be back for a fifth season.

The 16th season of "Grey's Anatomy" came to an end with its 21st episode on April 9 … four episodes early. The ABC drama got lucky: "From the minute the writers pitched this episode to me and then wrote it, I kept saying, 'You guys, this reads like a season finale, what are we doing after this?' We literally had conversations about pushing this episode later in the season. … We're so lucky that where we shut down happened to be a perfect season finale," showrunner Krista Vernoff told Entertainment Weekly, adding that they had "great stories" planned for the final four episodes. "A lot of things that we had planned to do in the last four episodes are going to change," she said of how those stories will factor into season 17, which is expected to debut in the fall.

Season 8 of FOX's "Last Man Standing" came to an end with its 21st episode on April 30 — one episode early. Star Tim Allen told Fox News that the "pseudo-finale" will set up future storylines … if the sitcom is renewed for a ninth season. "It was really a weird way to end," he said. "We're all feeling like it was a half-cooked piece of bread or a rain delay at a baseball game. You're all ready to go, you're winning, it's 8 to 4, everything's good, you've got your best players in and the rain came and they're going to cancel the game."

The 21st season of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" came to an end with episode 20 on April 23 — four episodes earlier than originally anticipated. The NBC police procedural will be back for at least three more seasons.

The second season of The CW's "Legacies," which has been renewed for a third season, went on indefinite hiatus after its 16th episode aired on March 26. Showrunner Julie Plec has said that the plan is to shoot the final four episodes before heading into production on the third season. After calling the March 26 episode the "spring finale," she tweeted, "More episodes to come as soon as we all go back to work!"

The fourth season of "MacGyver," which debuted in early February and has yet to score a fifth season renewal, was meant to consist of 22 episodes. Instead, the CBS series will reportedly end after its 20th episode. The exact timing is unclear.

Seasons of the CBS sitcom "Mom" typically consist of 22 episodes. But it appears that season 7 has ended with its 20th episode, which aired on April 16. The comedy has been renewed for an eighth season.

The first season of The CW's "Nancy Drew" was meant to consist of 22 episodes. Instead, the mystery series ended with its 18th episode on April 15. Star Kennedy McMann told "Entertainment Tonight" that the episode "works perfectly as a season finale" and as far as she knows, wasn't tweaked to serve as such. "Nancy Drew" will be back for a second season.

Season 17 of "NCIS" was meant to consist of 24 episodes. Instead, it came to an end with its 20th episode on April 14. The 22nd episode of the season would've marked a major milestone for the police procedural — it would've been the series' 400th episode overall. CBS has yet to renew "NCIS" for an 18th season.

Season 11 of "NCIS: Los Angeles" was meant to consist of 24 episodes. Instead, it came to an end with its 22nd episode on April 26. CBS has yet to renew the police procedural for a 12th season.

Similarly, the sixth season of "NCIS: New Orleans" was meant to consist of 24 episodes but ended early — with its 20th episode on April 19. CBS has yet to renew the police procedural for a seventh season.

The second season of "The Neighborhood" ended one show early — with its 20th episode on April 13. CBS has yet to renew the sitcom for a third season.

The second season of "New Amsterdam" ended with its 18th episode on April 14 — four episodes earlier than expected. Showrunner David Schulner told TV Insider that the original iteration of the season finale "was going to be a really exciting, action-packed episode about how [islands like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico] are ill-equipped to handle the amount and power of hurricanes because of global warming." NBC has renewed the medical drama for three more seasons.

The first season of "Prodigal Son" came to an end with its 20th episode on April 27 — two episodes earlier than originally anticipated. Series co-creator Chris Fedak told TVLine that as the coronavirus pandemic started taking New York City by storm, they began reworking how the season would end: "We quickly rewrote episodes 19 and 20 … and we turned them into two scenes that became the first two scenes of episode 21. Essentially, we scrapped those two episodes, and we linked the end of episode 18 to the beginning of episode 21," he said. Chimed in co-creator Sam Sklaver, "We weren't able to do everything we wanted, but we were so fortunate in that we got to end the season with the story that we had always wanted to tell since we first sold this show to FOX." The network has yet to renew the crime drama for a second season.

The third season of FOX's "The Resident" — which was meant to consist of 23 episodes — came to an end with its 20th episode on April 7. "We were lucky that this particular episode, 20, was strong and finale-worthy, but there were some things we had shot that we pulled up and were able to utilize in this particular episode to make it hopefully a more satisfying conclusion to the season. A lot changed in the last 10-12 minutes of the episode. Prior to that, it's largely what was scripted," showrunner Todd Harthan told TV Insider. The medical drama has yet to score a season 4 renewal.

The fourth season of The CW's "Riverdale," which was set to consist of 22 episodes, went on a monthlong hiatus following its 16th episode on March 11. The teen drama returned on April 5 but is now scheduled to end with its 19th episode on May 6 — three episodes early. ("Riverdale" writer Ted Sullivan tweeted that the new season finale "has a fun cliffhanger!") The series has been renewed for a fifth season.

The third season of "SEAL Team" was meant to consist of 22 episodes. Instead, the CBS series, which has yet to score a season 4 renewal, will end with its 20th episode on May 6.

The CW's "Supergirl" — which went into hiatus after its 16th episode aired on March 22 — returns on May 3. Season 5 was meant to consist of 20 episodes, but because the cast and crew were midway through shooting episode 20 when the coronavirus pandemic forced a shutdown, the 19th episode of the season has been rejiggered to serve as the season finale. It'll air on May 17. "Supergirl" will be back for a sixth season.

The 15th and final season of "Supernatural" was put on an indefinite hiatus after the 13th of 20 episodes aired on March 23. It's unclear when the final seven episodes will air on The CW — the last two episodes have yet to shoot, while several more episodes have yet to enter post-production.

The fifth season of "Superstore" came to an end on April 23 with the 21st of 22 planned episodes serving as the season finale. The 22nd episode — which had yet to enter production when the shutdown kicked off — was meant to serve as star America Ferrera's farewell to the NBC comedy. Instead, she'll wrap up her character's storyline on the season 6 premiere, which is expected to air in the fall. Executive producer Jonathan Green told Entertainment Weekly how the shutdown affected the show: "It ended up not really being much of a bummer at all because pretty immediately we decided that America would be coming back," he said. "She really wanted to come back and do the planned finale as our first episode of next season. It was a very quick, mutual decision. There was no back-and-forth about it at all. We were like, 'This obviously has to happen.' And so we'll work around her schedule to make sure that happens, but there was never really a moment where we thought, 'Oh no, we're not going to be able to give Amy a send-off.'"

The third season of "S.W.A.T." was meant to have 22 episodes. Instead, the CBS police procedural, which has yet to score a season 4 renewal, will conclude with its 21st episode on May 20 following a monthlong hiatus — episode 20 aired on April 29. "It really plays really well as a season finale for us," showrunner Shawn Ryan told TVLine. "It's a particularly big episode, with big emotions. I'm not unhappy that this will be the last episode of the season."

The third season of "Young Sheldon" came to an end on April 30 with its 21st episode — one episode earlier than originally anticipated. CBS has renewed the comedy for a fourth season.