Cliff Lipson/CBS ©2020 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved(LOS ANGELES) — Like other shows, production on CBS’ hit military drama SEAL Team was abruptly shut down earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic — right in the middle of star and episode director David Boreanaz’s shooting schedule.

However, the show returns tonight with a bang: a two-hour season four debut that will kick-off where last season’s cliffhanger left off: in Afghanistan, where Boreanaz’s character, Jason Hayes, and his Bravo Team track the son of a terrorist leader who took up the family business after the soldiers took daddy out. 

For Boreanaz, getting the chance to honor the real-life operators like the SEALs is one of his favorite elements of the series. Their reactions to the show are especially rewarding, the actor and director tells ABC Audio.

“You know, people have run into, people that even that I work with…the Tier One operators, Mark Owen, who brought the show to CBS, he’s kind of like the line to a lot of these guys, obviously, because he’s on deployment missions with them, and he’s the pipeline to kind of their reactions,” Boreanaz explains, adding, “They’re very enthusiastic about it.”

He adds of his character, “The way Jason Hayes compartmentalizes his existence in order to survive on the battlefield as well as the troubles he has at home — it hits true for a lot of people…”

Boreanaz goes on: “But what we’re so proud of is that it hits home to the people that matter and that they get what we’re doing. And that’s…some strong evidence that we’re we’re on the right path as far as telling these stories are concerned, of these brave men and women who serve our country and what they have to deal with when they’re on deployment and where they are at home.“

SEAL Team airs tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.