Young Sheldon Update Leaves Fans Rattled with Shortened Season 7 News
A rushed season means rushed storytelling.
Summary
- After the strikes, the networks are eager to release their shows as quickly as possible.
- This has led to the decision to shorten the new seasons of many popular series.
- Young Sheldon is one of them, and fans are concerned that the writers may not be able to handle it.
After nearly four months of exhausting struggles by writers and actors with the major studios, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions were able to reach tentative agreements with the AMPTP. This marked the end of the strikes that had brought the entire television and film industry to a standstill. And now that the networks are back to work, they are scrambling to catch up on their schedules, as 2024 brings the opportunity to fill the airwaves with new scripted shows or their new seasons.
But unfortunately, along with the unbridled desire to make up for losses, there are serious shortcomings that threaten both industry workers and viewers. Studios are actively rushing production to get more and more shows out as quickly as possible, and this can affect both the pacing and quality of scripts.
In particular, it could severely impact the highly anticipated new season of Young Sheldon. It looks like it's going to be a shortened season, and since it might be the last one, fans are on alert.
Studios Speeding Up Their Work
Viewers have repeatedly said that they respect the demands of writers, actors and everyone else involved in the production and are willing to wait a few more months so that the cast and crew can work at their own pace and ultimately deliver a quality, thoughtful product. Unfortunately, the networks are not happy with this because endless reruns and an emphasis on unscripted shows do not generate as much revenue as airing popular IPs.
As a result, studios need to move faster, and the only way to do that is to reduce the number of episodes in shows. According to various reports, most studios and networks have decided to cut most of their series down to 10-13 episodes per season.
Young Sheldon's Shortened Season 7
Unfortunately, CBS has also decided to shorten its flagship comedy series Young Sheldon. According to a report by TV Line, the Big Bang Theory prequel will also be limited to 10-13 episodes, which means it will be cut in half from the typical 18-22 episodes of previous seasons (with 18 episodes in Season 4 only due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Possible Side Effects Have Fans Worried
Naturally, such news has caused no small amount of concern among fans. Of course, the events of Young Sheldon do not always correspond to what the adult Cooper said in TBBT, and many aspects turned out to be unfair exaggerations caused by misinterpretations of Sheldon himself. So there is plenty of room for the writers to change things.
However, it is unlikely that they will skip some key events. If the canon timeline is still to be trusted, the very next year to be covered in Season 7 will be the one in which Sheldon moves to Pasadena and CalTech. So this season might be the last.
And that's exactly the reason for concern, because Sheldon still has to return from Germany and deal with one of the most traumatizing episodes of his life, when he caught George in bed with another woman. In addition, fans are on alert because the main event is supposed to be his sudden death. Considering the arcs of all the other characters, one wonders how the writers will be able to fit so many storylines into a mere 10-13 episodes. The question of extending the series for at least one more season should probably be on the table.
The decision to limit the show to a reduced number of episodes suggests that CBS is aiming for a midseason replacement, and that has been confirmed as the new season is set to premiere on February 15, 2024, according to TV Line.