The second season of NBC’s “Blindspot” is about to undergo major changes. For one, the show will be occupying an earlier timeslot in its upcoming season after it airs its season premiere.
The season premiere, slated on September 14, will still be occupying the 10 pm timeslot, but in the succeeding weeks, the show will move to the 8 pm timeslot.
The show will also be without it’s “The Voice” lead-in, which pulled in a lot of viewers during its premiere season.
The big shift in the schedule when the crime drama returns prompts the series to rely on its own to draw in ratings to sustain its status. Network executives and producers are not worried about the shift, but some adjustments in the tone of the show had to be made.
Speaking to the press during the Television Critics Association junket, NBC President Jennifer Salke stated that the network is confident that “Blindspot” will not suffer in viewership as a result of the new schedule.
One of the changes the show has to adhere to is the tone of the show. This means that the sophomore season of “Blindspot” will lessen the violence and might even infuse some comedy in the storylines.
However, producers say that the changes will not be drastic and will not shake up the premise of the show. They only need to be more careful about coming up with sanitized episodes without losing its identity.
Showrunner Martin Gero spoke to Entertainment weekly and cleared out that the show does not need to turn into a soft comedy. He stressed that the show will not be reinvented just because it will be showing earlier than before.
Gero said that they will tone down on the violence and lean into a sense of fun and lightness so it’s not all doom and gloom, but expect torture and shooting.
The first season of “Blindspot” was last season’s highest-rated new program and producers and the network is hopeful that it will remain that way for the new season.
The first episode of the new season is expected to address all the burning questions from Season 1.
Jane’s identity, including her real name and all the links about her mysterious character, will be revealed in the season premiere, reports say. After that, the show will return to its tattoo case-of-the-week format.
The executive producer says that the season will also lean into a sense of government mistrust that’s aligned with the culture now.
Gero said that answering those questions were necessary so the show can move on the next phase of the story.
The first season wrapped up with Jamie Alexander’s Jane finding out that she was not Taylor Shaw and that the real Taylor was killed by Kurt Weller’s father when she was still young. This led to a painful confrontation between the two in the final moments of Season 1.
Jane also pursued Francois Arnaud’s Oscar and finally tracked him down. Oscar then captures Jane and names Shepherd as the mysterious figure behind Jane’s identity. Jane then frees herself and kills Oscar.
Upon Jane’s return to her safe house, she is greeted by a coldly furious Weller who arrests her. Meanwhile, Reade, Zapata, and Patterson search for Mayfair, learning she was murdered.
The trio then decrypts a flash drive Mayfair had hidden in her house and discover files labeled as ‘Daylight’, ‘Orion’, and ‘M7G677’.
Gero states that the new season will be more of a reset. The executive producer adds that the second season will be more important than the first so fans should really stay tuned into every episode.
The show will also be bringing in more cast members like Archie Panjabi, Luke Mitchell, and Michelle Hurd.