‘The Blacklist’ gets early renewal from NBC

NBC is putting “The Blacklist� on its renewed list.

The peacock network announced Tuesday it has ordered a full 22-episode second season of its breakout fall drama.

The Monday series has established itself as the biggest debut of the season, developing quite the following in its post-�The Voice� time slot — Monday night it even tied with the popular singing competition as the No. 1 show on broadcast in the 18-49 demo.

Basically, an early renewal was a no-brainer.

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Adding historical context, NBC’s release notes that “The Blacklist� is NBC’s most-watched new drama eight weeks into its run in 19 years — since its sci-fi drama “Earth 2� in 1994 (which, ironically, lasted one season).

The drama features James Spader as criminal mastermind Raymond “Red� Reddington suspiciously helping the U.S. government catch international criminals.

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“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,� Bob Greenblatt, the network’s chairman of entertainment, said in a statement. “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!�

“The Blacklist� recently aired its fall finale and will return Jan. 13 with new episodes before taking another break to make way for the Winter Olympics. It joins Fox drama “Sleepy Hollow� in the camp of freshman shows already given the green light for a second season.

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