TNT is far from done with Captain Sharon Raydor and the detectives of the Major Crimes Division. The Turner owned cable network has renewed their hit series Major Crimes for a fifth season, to air in 2016.
While a final episode order has not been set, sources tell TVWise that the initial pick up is for 15 episodes. Word of the renewal first leaked on social media. Representatives of TNT did not immediately respond to TVWise’s request for comment.
Created by James Duff, Major Crimes follows the major crimes division of the LAPD under the command of Captain Sharon Raydor. The drama series is produced by Warner Bros. Television and stars Mary McDonnell, G.W. Bailey, Tony Denison, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz, Phillip P. Keene, Kearran Giovanni, Graham Patrick Martin, Nadine Velazquez, Robert Gossett and Jonathan Del Arco.
Major Crimes has been one of the few series on TNT that has been able to maintain a sizeable audience this season, as cable viewership has been down across the board. Season to date, Major Crimes has been averaging a total audience (including DVR and streaming) of just under ten million viewers. It also ranks as the network’s second highest rated original series, outpacing its predecessor The Closer, and ranking behind only Rizzoli & Isles, which has an audience of 11 million viewers.
This renewal has been on the cards for months, with both TNT and studio Warner Bros Television haggling over licence fee and episode order. Back in September, series creator and showrunner James Duff told TVWise that he was “confident” of a fifth season pick up and it was just a matter of “business affairs at the network, dealing with business affairs at the studio” on a new deal.
Now that Major Crimes has been picked up for a fifth season, the network has made calls, one way or another, on every one of their Summer dramas. TNT has already handed out a seventh season renewal to long-running procedural Rizzoli & Isles and earlier this month they picked up Steven Bochco’s Murder In The First for a third season. The Last Ship has also been renewed for next season, while Falling Skies wrapped its five season run this Summer.
