James Spader as Raymond “Red” Reddington. (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)
The fourth season finale of The Blacklist aired tonight, so you might be wondering if the show will be back for a fifth season. Yes, James Spader will return to play Raymond “Red” Reddington because the show has been renewed. The new season will return in Fall 2017.
As NBC announced earlier this week, the show will move from Thursdays to Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET. It will act as the lead-in for Law & Order: SVU and Chicago P.D.. The fifth season will run 22 episodes.
The season four finale for The Blacklist, titled “Mr. Kaplan,” ran two hours and brought Red face-to-face with Mr. Kaplan (Susan Blommaert), who has also been protective of Liz (Megan Boone). Meanwhile, the Task Force faced extreme scrutiny from Agent Gale (Enrique Murciano). In the second hour, Liz faced questions about her past since the Task Force’s very future was in question.
“There are going to be some pretty great surprises in these last two episodes for the audience, in a lot of the background moments and the relationship,” Susan Blommaert told TVGuide before the finale aired. “I think that it’s going to be a really good rollercoaster ride. Hopefully everybody’ll just fasten their seat belts.”
The Blacklist was on the bubble for a fifth season, especially since its glory days as a strong performer are long gone. As TVSeriesFinale.com notes, the show’s fourth season averaged just 5.319 million viewers, which was down 22.1 percent from season three. It averaged a 1.00 18-49 rating, down 29.65 percent from the previous season. No episode of the show has had 1.0 or higher rating in the demo since January 12.
In addition, the show’s spin-off, The Blacklist: Redemption, was a flop. The show, which starred Ryan Eggold and Famke Janssen, averaged 4 million viewers and a 0.75 18-49 rating. The show lasted just eight episodes.
The Blacklist started hot out of the gate in 2013 in the post-Voice slot on NBC. Spader earned Golden Globe nominations in 2014 and 2015, while Alan Alda earned an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Emmy nod in 2015. In 2014, stunt coordinator Cort Hessler won an Emmy.
The series was created by Jon Bokenkamp and director Joe Carnahan was an original executive producer.
