Well not wanting to deal with the between Inifnity War and Avengers 4 can of worms requires desperate measures.
It also means if they luck out and get a season 7, they can have it ready to go almost straight after season 6 is done. I mean they're filming the new season right now, so it'll be in the can for the best part of a year.
I have read that even if they get renewed for another season that the switch to summer is permanent. Agents of SHIELD has always struggled in live viewership and thrived on delayed viewing. During the summer, live viewership isn't as important.
You heard right. ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey is hoping that making it a low-stakes (live ratings-wise) summer series will enable them to keep the show going for more seasons beyond Season 6. She talked about it briefly during a Q&A with The Hollywood Reporter. Here's the direct quote.
Ming-Na posted a lovely photo on FB over the weekend, of herself at a function being photographed posing against a wall (the typical photo op thing), and of course she looked beautiful. She noted in the caption that one hour before that she'd been covered with blood and mud and sweat, filming a scene for the show, and thank God for her hair and makeup people.
He's not done with SHIELD yet. If not one side of the camera, then the other. Two episodes directed now. When does he join the writers' room?
For a show that destroyed itself by making everyone Nazi's in a Matrix ripoff, then wasted 20ish episodes in an alternate future that (surprise) was prevented from ever happening (thereby making the entire season irrelevant), this show just cannot die. It even killed the main character, and its not dead. Its like if Enterprise went for a 5th Season, but the only remaining cast members were Travis and Porthos and it was written by 5 year olds. But, since its too late to let the formerly pretty good show die with dignity, they might as well ride it out until they just can't justify making it anymore. It gives 3-4 decent actors a paycheck, which I suppose justifies it existing if Disney is just throwing money away regardless.