What It’s About, Who Stars, Where It Will Run

When CBS canceled “S.W.A.T.” in March, it wasn’t the first time — believe it or not, it was the third. After the show’s first two axings, the Eye net and Sony Pictures TV had been able to do some crafty dealmaking to keep it alive. But not this time.

“It felt very clear from CBS that this was the end,” said Sony Pictures TV Studios prexy Katherine Pope. “It was a difficult decision for them, but it felt very final. So we set out to sell the show elsewhere. We tried really hard, and we felt like we got close at a place or two, but we just couldn’t quite get it over the line.”

Sony has made a name for itself in finding new homes for orphaned series like “Community” (from NBC to Yahoo!), “Cobra Kai” (YouTube to Netflix) and “One Day at a Time” (Netflix to Pop TV). But that era of outlets taking a chance on pre-sold-yet-canceled shows is mostly over, Pope noted. “Moving a show from one platform that’s had it for such a long time to another in today’s world, I think, is really difficult.”

When it became apparent that “S.W.A.T.” couldn’t be revived, Sony Pictures TV chairman Keith Le Goy and Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Ravi Ahuja huddled with Pope about Plan B: Creating a “S.W.A.T.” spinoff instead. “It was something that we had talked about a couple of years now,” Pope said of adding a new title to the “S.W.A.T.” universe. They even had a working title for it: “S.W.A.T. Academy.”

But the clock was ticking. On Sunday, Sony surprised the international buyers at its L.A. Screenings event by revealing that “S.W.A.T.” star Shemar Moore would return as Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson in the spinoff “S.W.A.T. Exiles,” showrun by Jason Ning (“Lucifer”). But here’s the gamble: The studio ordered 10 episodes, yet hadn’t yet signed any domestic or international partners for distribution.

The “where” of it all is just one of many lingering questions. There’s also the “what” and the “how.” Will Sony deficit finance “S.W.A.T. Exiles”? Will the show be sold globally to one streamer, or piecemeal to outlets in the U.S. and internationally? Is there a chance CBS or Paramount+ might still come back to the table? Beyond “Exiles,” are more “S.W.A.T.” series in the offing? Will more “S.W.A.T.” stars besides Moore return to the spinoff? The answer to all of those questions right now are a “maybe.”

Pope and Sony Pictures TV chairman Keith Le Goy recently spoke with Variety to detail how “S.W.A.T. Exiles” will work, what the show will be about and where it could potentially wind up. (Answers have been edited for length and clarity.)

Walk me through how this all came about.

Pope: We were working so hard to try and get a new home for “S.W.A.T.” the mothership. And Keith said to me, “Well, what about that spinoff we’ve always talked about?” We knew the power of the brand and the power of the team, and then we started thinking about the need to keep our crew, the need to keep our stages, our desire to keep the show in L.A. with everything going on in our city and in our business. That just provided a bit of urgency to the whole thing. We thought about it, talked about the team, talked about the creative. I give it to Keith and Ravi for saying, “let’s just keep going. Let’s roll into it, and we’ll find great partners, and we’ll find the right home for it. But let’s not delay If that means keeping our crew together, keeping this show’s heart intact. Let’s just do it.” And so that’s it. It’s all happened so fast.

Give me the timetable. After CBS canceled “S.W.A.T.,” how long did it take to put “S.W.A.T. Exiles” together?

Pope: I think the whole thing came together within weeks!

The library is over at Netflix, right? Was that also complicated in terms of doing new episodes somewhere else?

Pope: It’s actually non-exclusive there, so there’s no conflict.

Le Goy: There’s no conflict at all. I think the library being at Netflix has actually enabled another large cohort of fans to discover the show, and to become part of the “S.W.A.T.” world. I think that’s something that makes this spin off very attractive in the marketplace. Because of the level of awareness that there is for the franchise, that’s been a positive.

Pope: A huge part of this story, from an industry point of view, is that as the volume of classic U.S. series comes down, you see the international market saying, “wait, we love these shows. These shows perform for us. Where are they?” “S.W.A.T.” performs incredibly well throughout the world. If we have an opportunity to keep a large portion of our producers, our crew and Shemar intact and fill that need, that feels like an opportunity for us as a studio. In some ways, it’s like “everything old is new again.” This is what studios do. Studios take on some risk and then have to go and hustle it. We’ve got to find the right partners and the right home. But it feels like  that’s something we do at Sony.

L.A. Screenings was your deadline to get this in shape — which like you said, was about a month. So what did it take to pull the trigger on “S.W.A.T. Exiles” even though you had no network partners? Were you pretty confident you’d be able to sell the show?

Le Goy: We had to make sure that we had a great creative take. That Shemar was going to be on board. And then making sure that there was a financial model that made sense. Is there some risk? Yeah, there’s absolute risk. This is a business that was built on people taking risks. We did what studios do, which is to measure the risk against the upside, and to bet on our ability to tell a compelling story and then to deliver that to audiences around the world.

Tell me more about the creative. You mentioned you needed Shemar on board first. What were those conversations like? Then, how did you end up with Jason Ning as the showrunner?

Pope: As with anything he’s ever involved with, [Original Films’] Neal Moritz was hustling the heck out of this from the jump. So with Neal and [fellow EP] Pavun [Shetty], we started talking in real time. As those conversations were happening with Neil and Pavun, they were happening with Shemar. Shemar, rightly so, was like, “this is intriguing, but I’ve got to know what it is. What’s the show and what’s the idea behind it?”

Obviously, first we went to [“S.W.A.T.” creator] Shawn Ryan, but he’s not only busy producing our show “The Night Agent,” but he’s also now in an exclusive Netflix deal. So he wasn’t able to do it, but is so supportive of Shemar and the team. We talked to Jason, who we have a deal with. He dug in, and came back with a pitch that was so smart and fresh, keeping all the values of “S.W.A.T.,” but making it something new.

It’s a bit of a take on the culture generation clash of Gen X versus Gen Z. Where Hondo is all about duty, hierarchy and chain of command, the Gen Zers are a little more like, “I might need to take a mental health day. I want to talk about it. I want to understand it.” It’s kind of our take on “Top Gun Maverick.” How do you actually learn from each other? How do we build bridges around not just generational divides, but all forms of divide? There’s a lot of division going on in our world. If we just took some time to listen and to try and be part of a team, and what that really means, it would probably be better for all of us. Neal and Pavun loved it, then took it to Shemar, who absolutely loved it. And we were off to the races.

How did you land on making 10 episodes, and crunching a budget that would make sense for Sony, particularly since you’re shooting in Los Angeles?

Pope: We have this crew that couldn’t be beat and has been pretty consistent over the course of eight seasons. Jim Scura, who will be the line producer on “S.W.A.T. Exiles,” started on “S.W.A.T.” and moved up the chain. When you’re taking on risk, you have to know that the team can deliver. And one of the things that was so incredible about this “S.W.A.T.” crew is every single season, no matter what, they were on time, on budget. Even when things went wrong, even during COVID, even when the fires happen, they just roll with it.

And I think the 10 episodes is that spot where you have enough to make sure we’re telling a story. We looked at 8, 10 and 13 episodes, and decided on 10.

Le Goy: At least for Season 1!

And I’m sure it depends on the buyers too. So are you looking at a good old fashioned mix of a domestic deal, and various international deals?

Le Goy: It’s coming back around to how things have been done traditionally. I think this time, probably the twist is that we’re shopping the domestic deal and the international deals all at the same time. That gives us different and interesting opportunities to align things in some new and interesting ways.

So there is also still the possibility of a Netflix or another streamer taking global rights?

Le Goy: Everything’s on the table.

Including selling “S.W.A.T. Exiles” to a broadcaster in the U.S.?

Le Goy: Everything is on the table!

CBS Studios was a partner on the original show, because of the deal with airing on CBS. Do you have to negotiate with them in terms of continuing the franchise without them? How does that work?

Pope: We gave them a heads up that this was brewing, and shared some of our models with them. They’re obviously doing their own models. They are not currently involved, but they have the option to be. We’ll probably know that fairly soon. It was a great partnership with CBS Studios. They’re a great group, and if they wanted to be a part of it, we’re totally open to it. And if not, we’re ready to go it alone.

So if CBS or Paramount+ are interested in “S.W.A.T. Exiles,” then CBS Studios could continue to be partners on this new project?

Le Goy: Yeah, they could be involved either as a studio partner or as a distribution partner, or both.

Sony, more than any other studio, has become known for finding unique ways to keep projects alive, to evolve IP. I’ve written about so many shows that you’ve have found ways to revive in different ways. What it is as an independent studio that allows you to do these kind of things?

Le Goy: I think you’ve hit it on the head, which is, the very fact that we are an independent studio that allows us to really be varied in terms of the models that we adopt and the strategies that we adopt to keep our shows alive and to build on them. Whomever the partner or partners may be, we are focused on the story, the storytellers, and that’s what we’re going to champion. What we are constantly doing is to say, “how can we keep doing this in a way that makes sense for the cast, for the crew, for the studio, for the audience and for our partners around the world?”

That does give us the freedom to then say, what’s the best way to approach this? Is it through the traditional deficit finance model? Is it through the streamer cost-plus approach? Is it through some new and adapted version of those that gives a new pathway?

Pope: When I got here, everybody was like, “Sony has a ‘never say die attitude.’” And I think that’s really easy to say, but seeing it born out in every single aspect of what the company does. Everybody works so hard to keep these shows alive and to find new pathways. And being a part of that just kind of raises your game.

I find it interesting that you really don’t know how this show is going to be financed. It depends on what deal you ultimately do, if it’s going to be deficit finance, if it’s going to be cost plus. But you felt comfortable enough, no matter what, to greenlight the show?

Le Goy: Hmm, “comfortable”? When you feel slightly uncomfortable, that’s what you’re going to run towards. That’s what this business was built on, people betting on things that they believed in.

Is there a possibility of coupling the “S.W.A.T. Exiles” deal with additional “S.W.A.T.” spin offs, or pairing it with the existing eight-season “S.W.A.T.” library? What are some opportunities that you’re pitching out there?

Le Goy: Yes, all of those opportunities exist. We also have a movie from 2003, and we have an original. There is a whole franchise here that over the last several decades has been built up. And obviously the last eight seasons have been the most recent and probably the most successful iteration of that franchise up until now. That gives us a fantastic platform on which we can now build with “S.W.A.T. Exiles.”

So far, only Shemar has been announced as making the transfer, but is there a possibility of any other characters or stars from the “S.W.A.T.” mothership moving to “Exiles”?

Pope: For sure. As Keith was just saying, it’s a universe. There is a clear world that we’re exploring here. We’re a few weeks in. We’re still putting it all together, but for sure, I think you can expect some of your favorites to be a part of it in some way.

What’s the ETA here? When are you hoping that cameras might roll?

Pope: We’re planning start production end of August, so, we’re moving!

You mentioned that keeping this crew employed was important to you.

Pope: That’s really an important piece of this whole thing. The crew, and looking around at our city and our business and realizing, we have to keep our community healthy. We shoot a couple of shows on our lot, and “S.W.A.T.” has always shot at the same stages in Santa Clarita. A big piece of why we wanted to greenlight so quickly is to try to keep our community working.

Shemar seems excited. I’ve never seen so many capital letters or exclamation marks in a press release quote.

Pope: He came out on Sunday at the screenings with Keith, and he’s a true showman. He loves his fans, and he loves this show. He loves playing Hondo, and his enthusiasm is pretty infectious.

This show has got nine lives.

Pope: Or ten or 12!