CBS has handed out early renewals to three of its freshman series. Magnum P.I., The Neighborhood & FBI have all been renewed for second seasons.
Magnum P.I., a reboot of the Tom Selleck procedural starring Jay Hernandez, has helped CBS improve its Monday at 9 PM slot by 32 percent. The series is produced in-house at CBS TV Studios, where showrunner Peter M. Lenkov is under a rich overall deal. Should CBS renew Hawaii Five-0 and MacGyver, Lenkov would continue to have three series on the network next season.
The Neighborhood, meanwhile, averages nearly 8 million total viewers on Mondays. Cedric the Entertainer and Tichina Arnold star opposite Max Greenfield and Beth Behrs in the fish-out-of-water family comedy that has become an early fan favorite.
FBI, from Law & Order mastermind Dick Wolf, is CBS’ No. 1 new series and is averaging 13 million viewers per week. The Universal Television and CBS TV Studios co-production got off to a rocky start with multiple showrunner changes. The drama is now on its third showrunner but is finally hitting its stride.
FBI, Magnum P.I. and The Neighborhood represents the first series from the 2018-2019 freshman class to be picked up for a second season. All three received additional episode orders (nine for FBI and The Neighborhood and seven for Magnum). Still to be determined are the fates of fellow rookies The Code, Fam, God Friended Me, Happy Together and The Red Line. Freshmen Happy Together and Murphy Brown also remain in contention, though neither received additional episode orders after launching in the fall.
