In May 2017, Sony Pictures Television gave NBC a 50 percent ownership share of Timeless to get the Shawn Ryan-produced drama a second season after the broadcast network’s surprise decision to cancel the time-travel series. Flash forward six years and Sony — the independent studio where Ryan has been based with an overall deal since 2011 — and the prolific showrunner returned to the battlefield to save another show: CBS’ SWAT.

Compared with Timeless, the negotiations over SWAT were a bit different. To start, Sony fully owned Timeless when NBC decided to cancel the series after a single season. The studio, which at the time was overseen by executives Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, sacrificed the lion’s share of the profits in order to keep Timeless on the air when it brought in NBC’s studio counterpart, Universal Television, as a co-producer.

With SWAT, sources say the renewal discussions began a few months ago when Sony TV chief Katherine Pope — who took over the studio last summer after departing Charter Communications — called CBS and co-producers at CBS Studios to inform them that Sony could not reduce its licensing fee below its current level for season six. Since SWAT was already a co-production between CBS Studios and Sony, that meant CBS had to increase its payment to Sony to keep the Shemar Moore-led reboot of the 1975 series of the same name on the air for a seventh season.

CBS, in the meantime, has focused on reducing overhead on its scripted programs amid broadcast’s continued declines. The cast and creatives on the CBS Studios-produced Blue Bloods accepted a 25 percent salary reduction to get a renewal for its 14th season and keep the hundreds of staffers employed on the Tom Selleck-led procedural employed. The Warner Bros. TV-produced Bob Hearts Abishola reduced its series regular cast recurring for all but its two leads, helping to trim the budget and fees CBS pays to Warner Bros. TV to air the Chuck Lorre comedy. Fox, too, turned its nose up at the $9 million per episode licensing fee for the Ryan Murphy-produced 911. Instead, ABC — whose 20th Television studio produces the show — picked up the drama. (Fox instead renewed 911: Lone Star because it costs an estimated $3 million per episode less than the flagship series.)

Sources say Sony’s Pope wanted to stop Sony from bleeding money on SWAT after CBS had successfully negotiated for a reduced licensing fee for the past few seasons.