The Blacklist Renewed for Season 2 by NBC

NBC has announced that breakout hit The Blacklist has been renewed for a full 22-episode second season, which will premiere next fall. The move comes following an impressive ratings performance last night, where the series bounced up half a ratings point (pending adjustments) and tied The Voice for the first time.

“The success of The Blacklist demonstrates that inspired storytelling is alive and well in broadcast television, and I’m impressed on a daily basis by this creative team’s imagination and the extent to which they will go to capture this grand vision on film,” Robert Greenblatt, Chairman of NBC Entertainment, said. “With gratitude to both our partners at Sony Pictures Television and our NBC development executives who took a great script and shepherded it into a great series, I hope that Red Reddington never runs out of names to bring down on his list!”

It’s another sign of faith in The Blacklist from NBC, the network opting to air three January episodes of the procedural thriller rather than taking it off the air for an extended hiatus a’la Revolution. Following installments on January 13th, 20th, and 27th, the show will go into a hiatus of around one month and air out the rest of its first season with The Voice. Given the show’s recent ratings performances, as well as the fact that it’s set records with its DVR viewing seemingly every week and that it’s much less serialized than Revolution, it seems likely that The Blacklist will be able to do well for itself without The Voice and find itself able to survive a hiatus much better than the sophomore sci-fi drama did. But the main question is whether or not NBC should try to use its ratings momentum come spring to boost a midseason show or keep The Blacklist with The Voice so that said momentum could last as long as possible.

The Blacklist airs Mondays at 10:00 on NBC. The series is the second 2014-2015 renewal that has been announced this fall, as FOX opted to renew Sleepy Hollow for a second 13-episode season rather than giving its first season a nine-episode extension.

Have you been watching The Blacklist? Do you think that the show will hold up without The Voice? Should NBC move The Blacklist sometime in the spring so that another show can get the Voice lead-in?