The Blacklist is going strong in its tenth and final season, and now NBC has more big news not too long after it hit the milestone 200th episode. As the saga approaches the end, the James Spader-led series is moving nights once again. Whether or not that’s good news for fans who may have gotten used to seeing Red and Co. on Sunday nights, there’s another reveal definitely worth celebrating: the network is giving The Blacklist a super-sized series finale. And that’s not even all!
NBC has announced that The Blacklist will change time slots to begin airing on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET beginning on June 1, after spending the previous months of the 2023 TV schedule on Sundays. The 8 p.m. time slot on Thursdays means that the drama will inherit the primetime slot previously held by Law & Order Season 22, which aired its finale (which was also its 400th episode) in May.
In addition to the change in the schedule, The Blacklist will air back-to-back episodes on June 1, giving fans two hours of Reddington action to start the month. The drama will also end with a two-hour series finale event on July 13, starting at 8 p.m. ET.
While some of these may seem like odd changes for a show as it approaches its end, they’re not unprecedented for NBC. Medical drama New Amsterdam doubled up on episodes not too long before the end, and then concluded with a two-hour series finale event. It remains to be seen if The Blacklist’s final two episodes were written as a two-parter, as New Amsterdam’s executive producers told CinemaBlend earlier this year that it wasn’t the original plan for the medical drama.
There is still one episode left before The Blacklist changes over to Thursdays, with “The Nowhere Bride” airing on Sunday, May 28 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. The first portion of Season 10 was actually the first time that the show aired weekly on Sundays, which I saw as potential great news for fans. It was paired with the NBC revival of Magnum P.I., set to return in midseason. The network now has more vacant primetime slots after the finales of One Chicago, the Law & Order shows, and other series from the 2022-2023 TV season, so it’s not shocking to see The Blacklist make a move.
It’s also not unusual for The Blacklist to change time slots in the span of a single season. The eighth season started on Fridays before moving to Wednesdays, followed by Season 9 starting on Thursdays before moving back to Fridays, followed by the move to Sundays to start Season 10. With the finale scheduled for July 13, it’s a safe bet that NBC does not plan on changing The Blacklist’s place in the schedule again before the two-hour series finale. The network has not yet announced what show will take over 8 p.m. ET on Thursdays after the end of The Blacklist.
For now, be sure to tune in to NBC on May 28 for the very last new episode of The Blacklist that will air on Sunday, and prepare for the switch to Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET starting on June 1. If you want to revisit earlier episodes, you can find recent Season 10 episodes with a Peacock Premium subscription, and Seasons 1-9 streaming with a Netflix subscription.
