In the wake of The Blacklist's intense midseason finale, NBC has announced that the drama will be renewed for a second season.

Created by Jon Bokenkamp, the FBI drama stars James Spader as the ever mysterious Raymond 'Red' Reddington - a former government agent gone rouge that has teamed up with the FBI's Liz Keen (Megan Boone) in order to bring down some of the most world's most notorious criminals. However, Red brings with him a tangled web of mysteries that may hold the key to dark secrets in Liz's past and present.

Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, lauded the series excellent writing when explaining why the network chose to give The Blacklist an early renewal.

"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," Greenblatt said, according to Spoiler TV. "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!"

Meanwhile, Spader believes the programs success rests on the complicated and intriguing character development that constantly keeps viewers gussing.

"There's a long life ahead, hopefully, and for a show of this nature I hope that I continue to be surprised, and not just by story line and not just by plot twists and turns," Spader explained during the Beyond the Blacklist feature for last Sunday's "Anslo Garrick - Part 2." "What's more important to sustain me and, I'd think a long term audience for the show, what will sustain them is the characters and those relationships and their pasts and their present and more importantly their future, which I think will be inextricably entwined with the secrets of their past."

Currently on a six-week hiatus, The Blacklist will return on Jan. 13 on Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC.

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The Blacklist, Nbc, Television