Money. Money. Money. Cedric the Entertainer says that’s the reason CBS pulled the plug on The Neighborhood.
The comedian, who leads the cast of the family comedy and is one of the executive producers, sat down for a new interview Friday, April 24, on “The Breakfast Club.”
He was asked why his popular series is ending.
“After eight seasons, everybody needed raises and that’s when you knew, ‘Alright this show is getting ready to be done,'” Cedric said.
The actor and producer mentioned NBC’s Friends, which famously paid its ensemble cast a million dollars per episode. But he said the television industry has changed since Friends ran from 1994 to 2004.
The Neighborhood premiered in 2018, and has run for more than 150 episodes. The series is produced by CBS Studios and airs on CBS.
But in March 2025, the network announced the comedy would end with its eighth season.
The sitcom follows a white family from the Midwest that moves to a mostly-minority neighborhood in Los Angeles. The newcomers experience a bit of a culture shock and initially get the cold shoulder from grumpy neighbor Calvin, played by Cedric.
Max Greenfield, Beth Behrs, Tichina Arnold, Sheaun McKinney, Marcel Spears, and Skye Townsend also star on the series.
Cedric told “The Breakfast Club” CBS was ready to pay him more money, but the rest of the cast and crew were a different story.
“They were like, ‘You want to come do another season?’ I was like, ‘You gotta take care of everybody else.’ That’s literally what happened, they was like, ‘Nah,'” he stated.
Cedric said he didn’t want to “be that guy,” who left everyone else behind. He added that the writers and production crew deserved more money as well, but things just didn’t work out.
Back when the show was canceled, Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment, praised the series.
“The Neighborhood is a strong ratings performer for CBS and one of the top comedies on TV. We believe the show’s loyal fans deserve a proper farewell season full of the trademark humor and heartfelt moments that are synonymous with the series,” Reisenbach in a statement.
Five months later, CBS parent company Paramount Global was sold to Skydance Media. The $8 billion deal closed on Aug. 7, 2025. There have been widespread cuts at CBS, BET, MTV and other Paramount properties since then.
Cedric called The Neighborhood “a blessing,” and said it was his longest-running project to date after previous roles on The Steve Harvey Show, The Soul Man, and The Proud Family.
“We did five seasons on Steve Harvey, five seasons on Soul Man, and eight on The Neighborhood,” he told the radio hosts.
Cedric said he wanted The Neighborhood to go on much longer. “It was one of those shows you really didn’t want to see come to an end… We felt like we could have told more stories, forever, ” he said
The comedy ended production in February and the cast shared videos on social media.
The series finale airs Monday, May 11, 2026, at 8/7c on CBS. The final episode is titled “Welcome to Goodbye.”
You can watch Cedric’s full interview here. He talks about The Neighborhood at the 1:53 mark.
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