‘Criminal Minds’ Season 15 News: Series’ Final Installment Announced; Here’s Why CBS is Cancelling the Show

CBS’ long-running police procedural drama has been renewed for another season, however, it was revealed that “Criminal Minds” season 15 is going to be the last. The news was released in January and the team is already back to the filming set.

According to TV Line, “Criminal Minds” season 15 will be back on air in the last quarter of 2019 and likely to last until 2020. The final run will consist of just 10 episodes, bringing the total number of the series’ episodes to 325.

Commenting to the announcement that the show is ending after “Criminal Minds” season 15, showrunner Erica Messer told TV Line, “It’s really bittersweet, but I’m so, so grateful to CBS for giving us this heads-up.”

She added, “I think one of my biggest fears was always, ‘Oh man, what if we don’t know’ and then they just don’t bring back the show? But they respect this series and the cast and the crew and the fans enough to end this properly.”

As for the reason for the cancellation of the drama, CBS did not explain or provide a reason but based on analysis of the experts, “Criminal Minds” season 15 has been ordered to be the farewell installment due to its declining viewership ratings. What’s more, Hypable opined that the crime drama genre is dying slowly and mentioned CSI as proof.

The paper further stated that since Thomas Gibson was fired in season 12, “Criminal Minds” started to decline because it has grown stale at that point. It explained that although the stories were still interesting, it has become less shocking and too predictable compared to the previous seasons.

“Criminal Minds” season 15 is in production now and when it returns, all the cast including Daniel Henney, A.J. Cook, Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, Aisha Tyler, Matthew Gray Gubler, Kirsten Vangsness and Adam Rodriguez are expected to be part of the farewell season. Meanwhile, the airdate is not yet available at this time.