‘Life in Pieces’ renewed for season 2 by CBS

CBS has just now officially lifted the veil on the first freshman show from them coming back this fall: “Life in Pieces.”

The big surprise here is mostly that this show managed to become the rare single-camera series on the network to get this sort of love, given that when you look at the past several years, it’s been one dud after another. CBS is a multi-camera network, where the vast majority of shows do happen to have laugh tracks and sets at some studio lot. This one functions a little bit different.

As for the renewal itself, it’s not much of a surprise at all. “Life in Pieces” was a very solid performer throughout its first season; it averaged a 2.0 in the 18-49 demographic, and other than the finale where it scored a surprisingly-low 1.6, it hovered around a 1.8-2.0 through the majority of its episodes in the fall and the spring. It premiered to a 2.6, and that bumps up the average rating somewhat.

The challenge for this series moving into the second season is mostly that it does have a possibly change coming in the schedule. It had the benefit in season 1 of airing behind “The Big Bang Theory,” easily the #1 show on the network by a pretty wide margin. CBS will probably want to give a new show that lead-in, if for no other reason than that it’s a golden opportunity to boost the ratings of someone else who needs it.

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens, as the full primetime schedule will be announced later this month at upfronts.