For Sony Pictures TV President Katherine Pope, the start, stop and repeat of “S.W.A.T.” is the classic Hollywood story.
The Shemar Moore-led procedural escaped cancellation not once but twice as CBS attempted to wind down the long-running series to make room for new shows in development, only to be rescued through fan support and modestly strong ratings. After getting two extra seasons of life out of CBS, “S.W.A.T.” eventually reached the end of its road with its eighth installment in May 2025.
But Sony Pictures TV, which co-produced “S.W.A.T.” alongside CBS Studios, knew there was still a hunger for the show and Moore’s Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson, and made the bold decision to greenlight a spinoff series headlined by Moore — without a distributor attached. Instead, Sony stood as the sole producer and distributor of “S.W.A.T. Exiles,” avoiding the destruction of sets and enabling the studio to jump right back into production with much of the Los Angeles-based “S.W.A.T.” crew returning.
Sony bypassed the sometimes years of development that could’ve seen “S.W.A.T. Exiles” stalled at a streamer or network — if it even made it to air at all — by taking on a fair amount of risk to front production in the hopes it would eventually find a distributor. The success of the project, which eventually landed at Starz, also unlocked a new model for Sony Pictures TV of self-financing projects the company believes in, opening a new avenue for studios to land that increasingly elusive green light.
“In today’s world the timelines are just so … challenging — everything takes so long to get greenlit, and then it takes so long to get a second season,” Pope told TheWrap. “Those timelines, for me as a business person, are tough [and] for me as a fan, are tough … Time is the enemy of an efficient production … Time is money.”
From cancellation to green light
While CBS reversed its decision to cancel “S.W.A.T.” twice after both Season 6 and 7, Sony knew going into the eighth season that it would truly be the last.
“They were pretty straightforward and transparent with us that they had some newer franchises [and] … good development they really liked,” Pope said. “Eight seasons, that many episodes — that’s a gift in today’s world.”
Pope revealed Sony had been discussing a spinoff for “S.W.A.T.” “over many years,” and Moore was fully on board.
“When Sony comes to you, and Neil Moritz comes to you, and Katherine Pope come to you and say, ‘Hey, do you want to work?’ You don’t say no,” Moore told TheWrap. “Shows are getting canceled left and right … It’s politics, it’s business. I take it very seriously, and so I’m going to go out guns blazing … This will end one day, but today’s not that day.”
Sony presented the opportunity to CBS, though it wasn’t a match for the network. “They felt like they really had some newer franchises they were excited about,” Pope said. “There was no ill will whatsoever.”
Sony entertained some conversations at other potential distributors early on in the process, but it quickly became apparent that shopping around the spinoff would significantly extend the timeline, killing the momentum for the project.
“We got to a place where we were like, if we wait, if we take this out and shop it … we’re going to lose the stages, which we already had. We didn’t want to lose our crew,” Pope said.
She added: “Although this became a business decision and a decision about sort of diversifying our portfolio, it really was at first just a very practical decision of we got to get this thing going so we can keep the team in place and also do this economically.”
Maintaining the production team was likewise as much of a quality decision as it was a business decision, with Pope noting the core crew are experts in shooting the action that come with a show like “S.W.A.T.” But Pope also had the confidence in the crew’s ability to stay on budget, revealing that the production number was essentially the same season-after-season, which would be necessary as the studio shouldered the risk of self-financing the production.
With that, Sony seized the moment and gave a 10-episode order to “S.W.A.T. Exiles” in May 2025, just days after the series finale aired on CBS.
Expanding past procedural
Sony tapped Jason Ning (“Lucifer,” “The Brothers Sun”), who had an overall deal with the studio, as the series showrunner, whose philosophy for the spinoff relied on honoring the original without repeating it, instead embracing a grittier tone and more serialization that differentiated it from the flagship’s procedural format.
“The exciting thing wasn’t just simply bringing Hondo back; it was showing audiences a Hondo they haven’t seen before,” Ning said. “It’s a Hondo who’s angrier and more wounded and more vulnerable.”
The spinoff, which premieres Friday on Starz, introduces a version of Hondo whose faith in the institution he’s devoted his life to has been shaken, leading him to step away from the force. It’s then that he’s met with the challenge of working with “an impossible group of young recruits who challenge how he thinks … leadership is supposed to work,” welcoming in an intergenerational conflict as Gen Z enters the picture.
While “S.W.A.T.” wooed the broadcast audience on CBS for eight seasons, Moore believes the new dynamic will draw in a Gen Z audience.
“I think the Gen Z crowd is going to turn on ‘S.W.A.T. [Exiles]’ and go, ‘Yo … Hondo’s the OG,’” he said. “It’s going to make youngsters out there fantasize about being in their position.”
The hope is that the spinoff can both satisfy fans who would’ve loved the original series to go on for another decade while also bringing in a new crop of viewers. “If you love ‘S.W.A.T.,’ you’ll immediately recognize something you love, but … if you’ve never seen it, there’s a clean on-ramp,” Ning said.
Finding a home
Over a year after Sony’s green light, “S.W.A.T. Exiles” landed at Starz, a frequent Sony partner that distributes the “Outlander” franchise, in what Pope calls a “dream” partnership.
“Much like Starz’s standout, long-running franchises ‘Power’ and ‘Outlander,’ ‘S.W.A.T.’ has demonstrated a remarkable ability to connect with audiences and sustain a loyal fan base for more than a decade,” Starz President Alison Hoffman told TheWrap, noting the show brings in a “passionate” viewership that has been eagerly waiting for more.
“S.W.A.T. Exiles” also fits into Starz’s goal of building franchises that “champion diversity both on screen and behind the camera,” which Hoffman notes the network has seen success with via the “Power” universe, which has generated five spinoffs with more than 200 episodes to date.
“We look for series that become essential viewing for audiences, week-after-week, and can evolve into enduring franchises,” Hoffman said. “‘S.W.A.T. Exiles’ is well-positioned to do both.”
In fact, Starz’s audience analysis already found an overlap between “S.W.A.T.” viewers and Starz subscribers, but the key will be whether it can also lure in new subscribers, with Hoffman noting Starz will decide on a Season 2 green light based on the show’s ability to “attract new subscribers, deepen engagement among existing viewers and expand the reach and impact of the Starz brand.”
But Sony is so confident in its spinoff that it renewed “S.W.A.T. Exiles” for a second season — which Pope hopes will indicate to viewers “this is a show I can count on” — without Starz’s commitment.
“The early momentum has been incredibly encouraging,” Hoffman said, noting that a decision on Season 2 will be made based on “total viewership across our platforms and distribution partners, along with how audiences engage with and respond to the series throughout the season.”
Unlocking a new model
Pope noted the internal green light from Sony marks a great risk in a way she’s never seen over the course of her career, but it felt like an appropriate time to take a chance given how well Sony has been doing across the board, pointing to the box office success of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which became the highest-grossing film in the history of the domestic box office.
“TV used to be very much a deficit business and a risk-based business, and we got to … streaming deals where you didn’t have to take on risk, and that’s great. I think those deals … make sense still, but we also got to a place where we wanted to do different models,” Pope said.
Taking that green light power enables Pope and her team to champion the projects they believe in. But the financials have to make sense, with Pope noting this model wouldn’t work for a grandiose series like “God of War,” which is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios with Prime Video attached as the streamer.
“The No. 1 thing about this model is it has to be able to be produced at a number, and you can’t take something and just cut around the edges and try and get it down,” Pope said. “It’s not nothing. It’s a big number. It’s a lot of risk, but … it’s not $15 million dollars an episode.”
IP and star power — both of which “Exiles” have — can make self-financing an easier sell, though Pope notes “the nice thing about some of these structures is sometimes just the idea, the concept of the show is the selling point, and you can break some stars … you can find ways to not have it all be so unwieldy or so expensive.” And shooting in Los Angeles continues to be a priority for the studio.
“Exiles” also gave Sony a prime opportunity to diversify its portfolio from the bigger budget series they’ve had success on via streaming of late that take much longer to produce, with Pope noting “every show you make can’t be ‘The Boys’ or ‘God of War.’”
“While I think we have a real skill with world-building … let’s make sure our portfolio is diversified enough [that] … we’re also doing something that is in our world and that’s equally as important,” Pope said.
Whether or not Starz picks up Season 2, Sony is rewriting Hollywood’s rules with “S.W.A.T. Exiles.”
