Young Sheldon's Annie Potts Calls Decision To End Big Bang Prequel A 'Stupid Business Move'
The decision to end Young Sheldon has rubbed "Meemaw" the wrong way.
In a new interview with our sister site Variety, Annie Potts says that she was "shocked" by CBS' call to bring the Big Bang Theory spinoff to a close after seven seasons. "I still don't understand why they cancelled it," she says. "It just seemed like such a stupid business move.
"This [cancellation] was especially hard because I was completely unprepared. I was shocked," the Designing Women vet declares. "I mean, the No. 1 show on network TV, No. 1 on Netflix. We're, I think, all that people watch on TikTok besides a couple of recipes for pasta.... If a show is starting to drag or lag or have a lack of stories or whatever, then you kind of see it coming. We were totally ambushed by this. I was, anyway." (TVLine has reached out to CBS and Warner Bros. for comment.)
To her point, Young Sheldon remains TV's most-watched comedy, but comes in second among all broadcast comedies in the coveted 18-49 demo (where it trails only fellow CBS sitcom Ghosts). But in terms of story, Season 7 is a natural stopping point for the prequel. The titular boy genius is now 14 — the age at which, per Big Bang's previously established timeline, the future Nobel Prize winner moves from Medford, Texas, to Pasadena, Calif., to begin his graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology. That same year, Sheldon's older brother Georgie marries for the first time, and family patriarch George Sr. meets his maker.
"The story of this extraordinary prodigy in a small town outside of Houston, in a family where he is very much a fish out of water — that story we've kind of told, and the remainder of his path leading up to The Big Bang Theory happens at CalTech, in California," series co-creator Chuck Lorre previously explained on The Hollywood Reporter's TV's Top 5 podcast. "Seven years... seems like the natural lifespan of [Young Sheldon], and that was a feeling that was shared between myself and both [series co-creator/executive producer] Steve Molaro and [fellow EP] Steve Holland, who have been instrumental in keeping this thing as extraordinary as it has been."
Young Sheldon's one-hour series finale (airing Thursday, May 16 at 8/7c) will feature cameos by Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik, who will reprise their on-screen roles as Drs. Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler for the first time since Big Bang's 2019 series finale. The Big Bang franchise will then continue in the fall with the first of two planned spinoffs: CBS' as-yet-untitled Georgie and Mandy spinoff starring Montana Jordan and Emily Osment. Lorre is also developing a Big Bang offshoot for streaming service Max.
Just four episodes remain before Young Sheldon's sendoff: Episode 9 airs Thursday, followed by Episode 10 on May 2, and Episodes 11 and 12 on May 9. The one-hour series finale will consist of Episodes 13 and 14.