Nabbing a renewal at the midseason point in the TV season is always big news, but New Amsterdam totally blew the average early renewal out of the water this week when NBC announced the series would be back for a whopping three additional season. While at TCA, NBC head honcho Paul Telegdy also revealed it was Ryan Eggold’s success on other NBC series The Blacklist that got his new show where it is now.
In fact, speaking at the Television Critics Association Winter press tour, Paul Telegdy spoke warmly about actors like Ryan Eggold being a part of the Peacock network’s family, also noting that the way broad works allowed the actor to hop from a notable show like The Blacklist to the also-very-successful New Amsterdam. As part of his commentary about the renewal order, he said:
And I’d like to share today we’re extending a similar creative courtesy for the next three years of a show we’ve grown to love and really value in our family, and that’s New Amsterdam. Now, when we first met Ryan Eggold as one of the bad guys on The Blacklist, we knew that he had a quality and a performer quality we wanted to keep working with, and I have to say it’s a testament to how the system sort of works at broadcast is that Lisa and Tracey and the team were able to develop what has obviously turned into a great ensemble piece led by David Schulner.
It's common for actors to do multiple projects within the same network family. Just like Ryan Eggold hopping from The Blacklist to New Amsterdam, Paul Telegdy also mentioned Jimmy Fallon doing other NBC projects outside of his late night work, as well as SNL alum Kenan Thompson, who has his hands in a lot of projects, some of which haven't made it to series, at the network. Or you could look at an example at another network like CBS, which had Michael Weatherly on NCIS before hopping to Bull.
Interestingly, Ryan Eggold’s follow-up to The Blacklist was not originally expected to be New Amsterdam. Shortly after leaving Red and co, Eggold’s character, Tom Keen, was given his own spinoff series called The Blacklist: Redemption. That project only lasted for eight episodes before getting cancelled by NBC in 2017.
That’s when New Amsterdam came up at the network. It was the first pilot-to-series project ordered by NBC for the 2018-2019 TV season and it kicked off with a huge plot twist that got viewers excited for where the Ryan Eggold drama was heading. It’s maintained a fairly steady audience during its time on the air, and as Paul Telegdy has noted, it’s a great vehicle for its lead.
Those close to the show seemed pumped about the renewal news (which obviously, a renewal is better than having to wait it out and possibly lose your job), and you can see more from the team celebrating on social media, below.
Regardless of the reasons behind the big New Amsterdam renewal, it will be interesting to see how this type of large renewal order plays out. Right now, New Amsterdam is a notable show for NBC, but ratings aren’t what they once were and the network renewal and cancellation game has changed a lot in recent years. The quote above sort of makes it seem like this could be a direction for other shows that fit the NBC criteria in the future, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Regardless, for now, you can catch new episodes of New Amsterdam on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET, as the show is back on NBC this coming week. (If you’re interested in what’s coming, we have some teases for you.) And take a look at what else is coming this winter with our full TV schedule.
