The real reason Young Sheldon was cancelled, and it wasn’t because of ratings

It might’ve been one of the most-watched comedies on TV, but Young Sheldon still ended in May last year, and I haven’t stopped asking why. I mean, this wasn’t your typical network flop. Since launching in 2017, Young Sheldon has been a ratings goldmine for CBS, pulling in millions weekly and standing tall as the number one comedy on broadcast television.

So, what is the real reason Young Sheldon was cancelled?

Big Bang timeline forced Young Sheldon’s end

via CBS

One of the main reasons Young Sheldon was cancelled was that The Big Bang Theory timeline was catching up fast. According to executive producer Steve Holland, they always knew they were working toward a fixed point: Sheldon moving to Caltech at age 14. “This is the right time for this story to come to an end,” he said.

Basically, they didn’t want to mess with the Big Bang lore. We already know what happens next in Sheldon’s life, it’s been referenced a hundred times. Stretching the show beyond that point would’ve meant either rewriting canon or awkwardly skipping around major events. Neither was a great option.

Iain Armitage got too old for the role

via CBS

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The next reason is pretty obvious if you’ve seen the latest episodes: Iain Armitage (aka Young Sheldon) isn’t so young anymore. He was just nine years old when the show started. By season seven, he was 15 playing 14, and viewers were starting to notice. Same with Raegan Revord, who plays Missy. You can slow down a storyline, but you can’t freeze puberty. And eventually, the age gap between actor and character became too much.

Chuck Lorre, the show’s co-creator, admitted they got lucky finding Iain in the first place. “It was the miracle of casting Young Sheldon,” he said. But miracles don’t last forever, and you can only keep your lead in a time warp for so long.

The TV industry is just… different now

Here’s the part nobody likes to admit: Money talks. Even if the creative reasons made sense, Young Sheldon also fell victim to the same financial shake-ups hitting TV across the board. CBS, like other networks, is moving away from expensive scripted comedies and toward cheaper reality shows and dramas.

Plus, Young Sheldon wasn’t fully owned by CBS, it was a co-production with Warner Bros. That means CBS had to pay licensing fees just to air it. Not ideal when you can just pump out cheaper shows in-house.

So yeah, the curtain may have closed on Young Sheldon, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with this quirky little universe. Between the Georgie and Mandy spin-off and another Big Bang Theory sequel already in the works, it’s clear that the Big Bang universe is still expanding.