It’s no surprise that CBS has handed out two early season 2 orders to two of their newest biggest hits. Friday nights will remain thrilling.
One good thing about CBS is they don’t wait long to make decisions on their new shows. While most networks wait until the spring to decide on shows, CBS will hand out season 2 orders to series that quickly establish themselves as successes.
Such is the case with TVLine reporting that CBS has given second-season orders to freshman cop shows Sheriff Country and Boston Blue. This comes with both shows only airing six episodes so far, yet they are already established as major successes.
Amy Reisenbach, President of CBS Entertainment, offered a statement on the shows’ renewals.
“Two new shows on Friday night have become instant hits with audiences quickly embracing 'Boston Blue' and 'Sheriff Country' across broadcast and streaming. These early renewals reflect the power of character-driven storytelling, compelling narratives and the exceptional talent on both sides of the camera that make these series truly stand out."
It’s great news for both series, which have created a strong Friday night block alongside established hit Fire Country. It also guarantees fans of the shows can look forward to more fun to come.
Why were these shows renewed so quickly?
Boston Blue is a spinoff of the long-running Friday night mainstay Blue Bloods with Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) moving to Boston to keep an eye on his son, Shawn, who’s a rookie cop there. Danny partners with Detective Lena Silver (Sonequa Martin-Green) whose extended family includes Boston District Attorney Mae Silver (Gloria Reuben), Boston PD Detective Lena Silver, Police Superintendent Sarah Silver (Maggie Lawson), rookie cop Jonah Silver (Marcus Scribner) and renowned Baptist pastor Reverend Edwin Peters (Ernie Hudson).
The show captures the flavor of Blue Bloods down to family dinners and uses the Boston setting well for crimes, a balance viewers have come to love. Per TVLine, CBS stated that the series has averaged eight million viewers in Nielsen Live +7 multi-platform viewing, with streaming alone up 87% vs. Blue Bloods last fall.
Sheriff Country is also a spinoff, from the hit Fire Country with Morena Baccarin as Mickey Fox, the sheriff of the California town of Edgewater. The series focused first on an arc of Mickey worried about her daughter Skye (Amanda Arcuri) caught up in a murder case. That’s been wrapped up, allowing more tales of Mickey handling crime in the town while dealing with issues with friends and family.
According to CBS, the show has averaged 7.6 million viewers in Nielsen Live +7 multi-platform viewing, and is up 33% in the time period vs. SWAT season 8. Put together with Fire Country and the block is delivering major ratings for CBS, making Fridays a key night for the network. Thus, giving out early renewals is no shock, and both deserve their success.
The renewals are obviously a boon for the shows’ writers as they now know they can build up plotlines that will pay off in a second season. It also establishes Friday nights as a terrific block for CBS and the three series are pulling in viewers.
All three shows will have three new episodes until their fall finales on Friday, Dec. 19. That leads to a very long wait as CBS doesn’t want to compete with the 2026 Winter Olympics, and so the block won’t return until Friday, Feb. 27.
At least fans of these two spinoffs are assured both are continuing and each show doing a great job living up to the success of their mothership series.
Sheriff Country airs Fridays at 8/7c on CBS, with Boston Blue at 10/9c.
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