When CBS canceled “S.W.A.T.” in March, it wasn’t the first time — believe it or not, it was the third. After the show’s first two axings, the Eye net and Sony Pictures TV had been able to do some crafty dealmaking to keep it alive. But not this time.

“It felt very clear from CBS that this was the end,” said Sony Pictures TV Studios prexy Katherine Pope. “It was a difficult decision for them, but it felt very final. So we set out to sell the show elsewhere. We tried really hard, and we felt like we got close at a place or two, but we just couldn’t quite get it over the line.”

Sony has made a name for itself in finding new homes for orphaned series like “Community” (from NBC to Yahoo!), “Cobra Kai” (YouTube to Netflix) and “One Day at a Time” (Netflix to Pop TV). But that era of outlets taking a chance on pre-sold-yet-canceled shows is mostly over, Pope noted. “Moving a show from one platform that’s had it for such a long time to another in today’s world, I think, is really difficult.”

When it became apparent that “S.W.A.T.” couldn’t be revived, Sony Pictures TV chairman Keith Le Goy and Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Ravi Ahuja huddled with Pope about Plan B: Creating a “S.W.A.T.” spinoff instead. “It was something that we had talked about a couple of years now,” Pope said of adding a new title to the “S.W.A.T.” universe. They even had a working title for it: “S.W.A.T. Academy.”

But the clock was ticking. On Sunday, Sony surprised the international buyers at its L.A. Screenings event by revealing that “S.W.A.T.” star Shemar Moore would return as Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson in the spinoff “S.W.A.T. Exiles,” showrun by Jason Ning (“Lucifer”). But here’s the gamble: The studio ordered 10 episodes, yet hadn’t yet signed any domestic or international partners for distribution.