‘Blacklist’ Shuffled to Fridays on NBC as Season 6 Premiere Date Set

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – NBC has moved “The Blacklist” to Fridays for its upcoming sixth season.

The broadcaster has announced that the drama series will return with a two-hour season premiere on Friday, Jan. 4 at 8 p.m. and will air in its new regular 9 p.m. timeslot beginning Jan. 11.

This marks the fourth timeslot change for the series since its premiere. It originally aired on Mondays before being moved to Thursdays midway through its second season. It then moved to Wednesdays for Season 5.

It came right down to the wire back in May on whether or not the series would get picked up for a sixth season. “” is produced by independent studio Sony Pictures Television for , which worked against the show as networks more and more look to pick up series produced by their vertically integrated studios. But NBC has a significant ownership stake in “The Blacklist” and the show has performed well internationally and has an SVOD deal with Netflix.

In Season 6, following the startling revelation that Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader) isn’t who he says he is, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) is torn between the relationship she’s developed with the man assumed to be her father and her desire to get to the bottom of years of secrets and lies.

The series also stars Diego Klattenhoff, Harry Lennix, Amir Arison, Mozhan Marnò, and Hisham Tawfiq. John Eisendrath, Jon Bokenkamp, John Davis, John Fox, Spader, Lukas Reiter, J.R. Orci, Carla Kettner, and Laura A. Benson serve as executive producers. It is a production of Davis Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures Television and Universal Television.