‘Elementary’ Renewed By CBS; Season 6 To Premiere Midseason?

CBS has renewed “Elementary” for Season 6. But for the first time ever, the new season of the crime drama series might not start its run in the fall.

According to Variety, there’s speculation that the show’s Season 6 could premiere midseason. While it’s unclear why the network is reportedly considering this option, the series’ soft Season 5 ratings could be a factor.

Entertainment Weekly reported that the show’s Season 5 has been averaging 7.4 million viewers and a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49, making it the lowest-rated drama series on CBS this season. Although “Elementary’s” latest ratings were not as promising as before, the show could still get a full season order for Season 6 as the series has been a success for CBS Television Studios through its off-network streaming and subscription deals with WGN America, Hulu Plus and other broadcast stations.

READ: “Elementary” star Lucy Liu books role on “Difficult People”

In fact, during an investor conference last May, CBS Corporation CEO Leslie Moonves used “Elementary” as an example of a program ownership success story, sharing that the show “made approximately $80 million profit for the corporation” in 2015.

Prior to the announcement of the show’s Season 6 renewal, “Elementary” executive producer Rob Doherty told TVLine that he feels confident that the CBS series — which stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu in the lead roles — would return for another season.

“I’m an eternal optimist. I feel good,” Doherty said when asked about the show’s renewal odds. “I feel like we’ve had a strong season. We’re certainly very pleased with the way it’s wrapping up. And trust me, there’s a lot of ‘Elementary’ left in this humble writing staff. Many, many stories to come.”

Meanwhile, “Elementary’s” Season 5 penultimate episode airs tonight. According to the synopsis for the episode, Sherlock (Miller) and Joan’s (Liu) investigation of Shinwell’s (Nelsan Ellis) murder will put them in the crosshairs of SBK.

As revealed in the trailer for the episode, the crime-solving duo suspects that SBK was the one responsible for Shinwell’s death. “No one heard or saw anything suspicious,” Sherlock says in the promo clip.

“It was SBK. I’m sure of it,” Joan tells her partner.

As part of their probe, Sherlock, Joan and Marcus (Jon Michael Hill) pay Bonzi Folsom (Al Thompson) —the head of SBK since 2004 — a visit. It seems, however, that Bonzi isn’t interested in participating in the investigation.

In an interview with TVLine, Doherty confirmed that Shinwell was, in fact, killed by an SBK member. “It’s someone we’ve seen before during the season,” Doherty said of Shinwell’s murderer. Although the exec producer said that the identity of Shinwell’s murderer will be revealed in the episode, the war against SBK won’t end with the discovery of the killer’s identity.

“We will identify the individual who killed Shinwell in the second-to-last episode. But that’s not really enough,” Doherty said. “SBK is, ultimately, the sum of its parts. Finding the person who killed Shinwell is really just taking away one small part of a much larger group.”

“Elementary” Season 5, episode 23, titled “Scrambled,” airs on tonight at 10 p.m. EDT on CBS.