9-1-1: Lone Star EP on Show’s Cancellation and Writing Out Grace: “We Had to Share the Pain We Felt Behind the Scenes”
The fifth and final season of 9-1-1: Lone Star will premiere on FOX on September 23, with new episodes airing weekly on Mondays. While its end may seem premature from a plot perspective, rumors of the show’s cancellation have been swirling since 9-1-1 moved to ABC in 2024. The news comes months after Deadline reported that lead actor Sierra McClain had left the series, leaving the fate of Grace and her relationship with Judd in question.
The 9-1-1: Lone Star season 4 finale saw fan-favorite couple TK and Carlos finally tie the knot after years of preparation. However, the ceremony was accompanied by an unexpected tragedy. Days before his son’s wedding, Gabriel Reyes (Benito Martinez, How to Get Away With Murder) was shot and killed by an unseen assailant. The Texas Ranger wasn’t the only character to meet his end, with Owen’s brother, Robert, choosing to be euthanized rather than succumb to his Huntington’s disease. Co-executive producer and director Rashad Raisani shared that the new season will pick up a year later, with the events still weighing on the characters’ minds.
Screen Rant spoke to Raisani about the creative decisions behind season 5’s time jump, what Sierra McClain’s departure means for Grace and Judd, the year TK and Carlos got married, and whether fans were satisfied with the series finale of 9-1-1: Lone Star.
Rashad Raisani: We felt like it was probably due to some of the financial realities of our situation. We’re a Disney-owned show and we’re on Fox, and we were at the end of our contract cycle before a major renewal. So we knew that a big-budget show like ours, in the current television environment where everyone is trying to cut costs and save money, was a perfect storm for us.
Even though, I think the show has never been more successful in terms of viewership, the financial reality and the alignment of our companies was not right. And so we had a sense that it was going to happen, even if it wasn’t official, because I think people from two different companies were trying to figure out how to make it work, but I think it wasn’t in reach. So we definitely went into this season with the mindset that we had to make sure that our stories aligned to give us a proper ending if this was the last season.
Rashad Raisani: Yeah, unfortunately, she dropped out before we rolled any cameras. We didn’t get to her, although we tried very hard.
Grace has been an integral part of the show from the beginning. Can you shed any light on how the show will handle her absence?
Rashad Raisani: What I’ll say is that Sierra McClain is so integral to the DNA of this show. She’s literally the voice on the other end of a call on a show that’s called 9-1-1. She’s the one who says, “Do you have an emergency?” So not only from her work, but her spirit and soul have been very much at the heart of the show emotionally. I think most people would say that Judd and Grace are the heart and soul of Lone Star, and half of that is gone. So there’s no way we can just address it or quickly erase it.
We just had to accept that loss to our show and, honestly, share the pain that we felt behind the scenes on camera, and make that a story, especially for Judd. Not to gloss over it, but at the same time, try to honor what both Grace and Sierra McClain meant to the show and try to make sure that we always respect and love Grace and Sierra as much as we can as we move forward. And I think we did.
