NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ season 2 would have happened, regardless of renewal

Here’s a rather interesting “Hannibal” tidbit to get you a little bit more insight on the show leading up to the season 1 finale airing on Thursday night. Regardless of whether or not NBC had chosen to pick up the show for another season, the series would have found a life somewhere else. (Of course, had we known this in advance it would have been a little bit easier to breathe during the upfronts week.)

So how did a show like this, which has a devoted following but is not exactly a Hannibal-esque ratings monster, manage to find such security? Much of it has to do with the new model that exists in TV, one where shows find alternate ways of being broadcast in comparison to the one-time “one and done” model that doomed shows like “Firefly.”

In speaking out about the series in a lengthy chat with HitFix, executive producer Bryan Fuller explains that he knew that the show would get a second season somewhere, and he also does his best to explain why:

“[I knew] because of the foreign deal and because of other interests that had stepped forward and said, ‘If NBC doesn’t pick up the show, we want to.’ So I knew there was going to be a second season. I just didn’t know whether it was going to be on NBC.”

At the end of the day, NBC probably still very much sees the value and the potential here. There is an opportunity after the finale for new fans to discover the show, and with a 13-episode order, this is not nearly as daunting as trying to watch 22 episodes of TV. Also, it is providing them some much-needed original content at a time when most of their scripted fare is gone for months.

Just in case you want even more “Hannibal”-related news about the finale and Comic-Con, our advice to you is to head on over to the link here.

Photo: NBC