NBC has two compelling, original, and entirely different shows about neuroscience experts who are also trauma survivors, and neither of them has been renewed yet.
Brilliant Minds and The Irrational both ended with strong cliffhangers, which makes the idea of losing either of them twice as disappointing.
Are these shows doomed? Or is the main reason NBC is taking its time that it isn’t quite time to make a decision about most of its scripted shows?
NBC Has Not Made Many Renewal Decisions Yet
NBC has barely made any renewal decisions yet, so it’s unsurprising that it hasn’t moved on Brilliant Minds and The Irrational yet.
So far, the only shows to get greenlit for another season are two of its freshman comedies: Happy’s Place and St. Denis Medical.
These shows pulled in extraordinarily high numbers, and NBC doesn’t have many standout comedies. So it made sense that the network jumped at the chance to keep them for another season.
NBC often waits until May, when it unveils its schedule for the fall, to make announcements about most of its shows, and it recently announced that it would be having its upfront presentation in New York City on May 12, 2025.
That’s still over a month away as of this writing, so NBC has plenty of time to make decisions.
Still, it’s annoying that Brilliant Minds ended at the beginning of January and The Irrational Season 2’s finale aired on March 18, yet we may have to wait until May for a decision.
Is The Fact That Brilliant Minds And The Irrational Both Ended On Cliffhangers A Good Sign?
It takes a certain amount of guts to add jaw-dropping cliffhangers to a show that you don’t know for sure is coming back.
One of my pet peeves is shows that leave their characters in limbo permanently because the series is canceled. I crave ANSWERS, and sometimes fanfiction isn’t enough.
So I hope that the cliffhangers in both these season finales are a sign that the showrunners know something we don’t about their chances of renewal.
However, if you missed my interview with The Irrational EP Arika Lisanne Mitmann, check out her final comments. I may be reading too much into it, but I felt like she knew this could go either way, and that was why she was encouraging people to let NBC know they want more of the show.
NBC Will Make Its Decision Based On Ratings, Not On How Good The Shows Are
Ultimately, NBC’s decisions aren’t based on factors like how critically acclaimed Brilliant Minds and The Irrational are.
So I’ll go into all the reasons I’ll be heartbroken if these shows aren’t renewed later on in this article, but first, let’s look at the numbers and make some predictions.
If we were going just by the number of people who watched live, The Irrational would definitely be in trouble.
The Irrational Season 2 Episode 1 premiered with ratings of about 3.09 million viewers. This was not that far off from its ratings during its first season, but live views fell to the 2 million range, and some episodes didn’t even make it that far.
In the pre-streaming days, that would have been a flashing red light to cancel this show. However, nowadays people watch TV differently.
Everything goes to streaming the next day, and lots of people catch their favorite shows that way. Others record it on their DV-Rs and watch whenever it’s convenient.
That’s certainly true for The Irrational. While I don’t have specific numbers, I do know that far more people are watching after it airs than during the live broadcast.
That means that NBC has a few options when it comes to The Irrational.
It could decide the live viewing numbers suck and cancel it outright, but that would be silly considering that people ARE watching.
So NBC could move the show to Peacock-only, as with Law & Order: Organized Crime.
It could also try moving it to a different night. Its ratings dropped when it was moved from Mondays to Tuesdays, so maybe Tuesday at 10/9c isn’t the best time slot for the procedural.
Watch The Irrational Online
Brilliant Minds’ live broadcast ratings were stronger than The Irrational’s. However, they steadily fell throughout the 13-episode season, which could be concerning.
Again, though, some people might have decided not to watch live rather than not watch at all.
Brilliant Minds ended with a super strong cliffhanger, and acting legend Mandy Patinkin’s involvement in the finale might be a strong draw.
Hopefully, NBC will want to capitalize on both of those factors and see what momentum can be built next year.
Watch Brilliant Minds Online
I Will Be Heartbroken if Brilliant Minds and The Irrational Aren’t Renewed
I love these shows for different reasons, but they also have a lot in common.
They’re both about neuroscience, which is one of my nerdy special interests.
Sometimes I can even guess the right diagnosis on Brilliant Minds because I studied some syndromes in my mental health counseling classes.
And I totally geeked out over The Irrational Season 2 Episode 14‘s use of the Millgram Experiment, which is a sociological experiment that has fascinated me since I was in high school.
Besides the neuroscience stuff, there’s so much diversity in both shows.
Brilliant Minds has the best depiction of neurodivergence I’ve ever seen, and both shows have some of the most diverse casts on television.
Best of all, both of these shows center trauma survivors in different ways.
I especially like the arc on The Irrational Season 2 about Alec’s decision regarding whether or not to have surgery to remove his scars, ultimately deciding that his scars made him who he is, and he doesn’t want to hide them.
Brilliant Minds also did a great job with Wolf’s trauma, carefully layering flashbacks to gradually tell his story before his father reappeared.
It would be a shame to lose these honest, raw, and realistic representations of things we don’t talk about enough on TV (or anywhere else). But hopefully, NBC will renew these shows so we don’t have to.
Do you think NBC will renew Brilliant Minds and The Irrational? Do you want them to?
Sound off in the comments!
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