‘The Blacklist’ picked up for full season

Hot on the heels of ABC’s “Lucky 7” cancellation and Fox’s renewal of “Sleepy Hollow” for a second season comes NBC’s own announcement that its big, splashy fall drama “The Blacklist” will be completing its first season.

The network announced on Friday that it was ordering the nine additional episodes of the series to give it a complete 22-episode first season.

The series, starring James Spader as an internationally renowned criminal who decides to help the FBI for reasons only he knows, debuted to an audience of 12.58 million. NBC’s decision to give it a full season comes after airing just two episodes; the second episode retained much of the audience of its debut.

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That vote of confidence by the network may give viewers the desire to tune in knowing that perhaps some of the show’s larger mysteries (such as why Spader’s villainous Red Reddington is doing what he’s doing) will get answered.

Based on the ratings from its first two weeks, “Blackist” is the top-rated new drama of the major four networks.

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