‘The Blacklist’ receives full-season pickup for NBC, makes James Spader’s schedule very busy

Even though the numbers may have dropped in the second week, NBC has clearly decided that they have seen enough when it comes to “The Blacklist” to make a big leap: The super-cool new show from the network is getting a full 22 episodes. This is the first show technically to get this particular honor, though “Sleepy Hollow” already was renewed for a second season. (It would have received 22 if that was something that it was looking for.)

In a statement announcing the news late today, Jennifer Jalke of the network had the following to say about getting the show back for more the rest of the season:

“The many layers of Red Reddington and his mysterious reasons for getting into bed with the FBI seem to be fascinating to fans of this show. With great talent like James Spader and Megan Boone on board, as well our stellar executive producers and the whole cast and crew, we believe this outstanding series will continue to make NBC a big destination on Monday nights.”

The biggest questions for “The Blacklist” to us are as follows:

1. Will the show actually maintain the high level of quality that it established for the pilot episode? 22 episodes is a long time to keep that kind of momentum going, and also tell a story with the right mixture of serialization. “Elementary” is a series we had these kind of same high hopes for and while Jonny Lee Miller is still our favorite actor on the planet, the show got stale without much of a main story to focus on with such a long episode count.

2. Will James Spader ever have a personal life again? In addition to this job, he has also signed on to play Ultron in the sequel to “The Avengers.” Even though he may not be required to be on set, he still will probably need to don a motion-capture suit while reading all of his lines.

Photo: NBC