TNT’s summer sci-fi drama Falling Skies has been renewed for a fifth and final season, and the network also gave a second-season order to freshman hit The Last Ship and a fourth-season pickup to Major Crimes. Falling Skies‘ final run will be for 10 episodes. TNT has ordered 13 episodes of Last Ship, an increase over its first-season order of 10 episodes. The network is also ordering 15 episodes of Major Crimes. Negotiations on a renewal of TNT’s top drama Rizzoli & Isles are underway, with that pickup expected soon. No decision yet on TNT’s other freshman drama, Murder in the First, which has not been as strong as Last Ship



I hear it was the producers’ wish to finish Falling Skies after five seasons as they felt that was the time they needed to wrap the story in the best possible way. For TNT, the pending loss of the demo rating dynamo would have been a big blow had it not been for the arrival of another breakout adventure drama, Michael Bay’s The Last Ship, which this summer, much like Rizzoli & Isles, came on just before previous TNT flagship, The Closer, wrapped its run. Falling Skies helped launch Last Ship much like The Closer launched Rizzoli & Isles. Last Ship has averaged more than 7.2 million viewers in Live + 7 and ranks as basic cable’s #1 scripted series this summer with adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 as well as also cable’s #1 new series for the year-to-date among total viewers and adults 25-54. In its fourth season, Falling Skies still averages a healthy 5.5 million+ viewers in Live + 7, including 2.5 million adults 25-54 and 2.1 million adults 18-49. Falling Skies producer Amblin TV already has another series lined up on TNT, Public Morals. Its portfolio also includes Under The Dome, Extant, The Americans, Red Band Society and Whispers. Major Crimes is showing an uptick over last year, with 7 million viewers in Live + 7 for Season 3. It averages 2.1 million adults 25-54 and 1.5 million adults 18-49.

