S.W.A.T. Star Jay Harrington Confirms Whether Deacon Is Leaving The Show

It looks like David "Deacon" Kay won't be going anywhere once "S.W.A.T." resumes for its 8th season, in spite of a Season 7 storyline that had him set to retire, which changed everything we know about Deacon. The man who portrays him, Jay Harrington, told TV Insider in May that he's got no plans to make tracks while previewing the Season 7 finale. 

"I know a lot of people are thinking the way the story has gone is I'm done and I'm gone. I'm not going anywhere, but we have two episodes to really see how this plays out. I think people are going to love it," Harrington said, explaining Deacon's storyline, which will see him return to S.W.A.T. academy to handle a contract dealing with another job he's taken on. Deacon will, per Harrington, experience the strange feeling of watching the world he once effortlessly inhabited chug along without him, unable to intervene. Deacon will try to counsel Hondo (Shemar Moore) as he copes with several earthshaking incidents, including a shooting. "Ultimately I get to have a great turn as I'm no longer working there, but I come by and I'm there for him and we have a nice scene talking about stuff," concludes Harrington. Since Hondo and Decon's relationship is so pivotal to "S.W.A.T.," it looks like the show's been careful to give them a decent farwell.

Just as Shemar Moore's reaction to the drama's renewal was unsurprisingly gleeful, Harrington's reaction to the announcement of Season 8 of "S.W.A.T." was also a happy one — and he got to hear all about it straight from Moore himself.

Jay Harrington told TV Insider that he heard about CBS's choice to renew "S.W.A.T." from Shemar Moore himself while he was off doing location shoots for "Allegiance," Episode 10 of Season 7. "We were only a few days out and we were shooting kind of far away and on the ride home the night before, Shemar had been talking and he called me at home and said, "It's looking good, but let's keep our fingers crossed. You never know."

The following day, Harrington was shooting interiors with the rest of the crew. With a group of CBS executives in the room, Moore made a speech before the cast and crew and dropped the news that the show had been renewed. Harrington was nothing but happy about it. "It was awesome," he said. And to find out how awesome "Allegiance" is, hit up Paramount+ to watch "S.W.A.T." online.