A little over two years since Young Sheldon wrapped up on CBS, and the decision has become totally unforgivable. When The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019, its first-ever spinioff continued its legacy and ran for five more seasons. Throughout that time, Young Sheldon evolved to become more than just Sheldon’s origins story. Creators Chuck Lorre, Steven Holland, and Steve Molaro started diversifying its storytelling by giving the rest of the Coopers their respective storylines separate from the boy genius.
It resulted in higher ratings, and Young Sheldon transformed into a true family comedy/drama rather than just a simple prequel. With every single one of its main characters given their own compelling storyline, there were calls for it to continue beyond its pre-determined end, which was dictated by Sheldon’s established timeline in The Big Bang Theory. Unfortunately, despite being the number 1 comedy on TV and the plethora of stories that it could still tell, Young Sheldon wrapped with a truncated season 7. Back then, the ending was bittersweet, but considering what’s going on now in The Big Bang Theory franchise, it’s difficult not to be mad about it.
Stuart Fails To Save The Universe’s Alternate Universes Could Have Saved Young Sheldon
The main reason for Young Sheldon ending despite its popularity was rooted in the commitment to The Big Bang Theory canon. Sheldon was already 14 years old — the age when George died, and he moved to California to start post-grad at Caltech. By then, the show had already extended the timeline, but with Iain Armitage physically growing, they couldn’t delay it further. Granted that Young Sheldon had broken continuity many times before, deviating from the timeline was far too big to ignore.
More than two years later, The Big Bang Theory franchise has introduced the concept of alternate universes via Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. Stuart Bloom’s new spinoff takes the beloved Pasadena comic book shop owner across the multiverse, exploring various timelines. Young Sheldon could have easily been set in a different reality to keep the show going. Not only would that save the prequel from its untimely cancellations, it would also have explained all the micro-continuity issues that it created.
Why Young Sheldon’s Alternate Universe Route Would Have Worked
Lorre, his team, and CBS found a way to continue capitalizing on Young Sheldon‘s success despite its end by launching Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which was network TV’s 2025-2026 cycle‘s number 1 sitcom. That said, considering how The Big Bang Theory multiverse is now established, Young Sheldon could have easily fit into that with barely any pushback. By the time the series ended, viewers were already used to it breaking continuity, but because its storytelling was so good, those transgressions were easy to forgive. The problem came when it insisted that it existed in the same reality as the nerd-centric sitcom.
Very few comedy spinoffs succeeded, and Young Sheldon was one of them. Granted that leaning on the multiverse aspect could cheapen its storytelling stakes, it would have been arguably worth it to go down that route if it meant that the Cooper family’s story could have continued. Unlike The Big Bang Theory, which ended because of Jim Parsons’ decision to leave the series, the whole cast of Young Sheldon wanted to continue doing it, so it would have been very easy to do just that
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