The Blacklist may only be a few episodes into its eighth season on NBC, but there is now confirmation that the show has been renewed for a season nine, as reported by Deadline. The show is one of the three longest-running scripted programs currently airing on the network, its only competition being Dick Wolf Productions’ Law & Order: SVU and Chicago Fire, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A message of gratitude addressed to the series’ massive fanbase was posted to the official Twitter account shared by the writer’s room:

So excited about the news about season 9!! To get sappy for a moment — not many shows get to make it to season 9, and we’re so grateful for all of your love and support in helping us get there. Best fans ever! We can’t wait to give you another season’s worth of Blacklisters!

— Blacklist Writers (@BlacklistRoom) January 26, 2021

The James Spader-led drama is indisputably popular. At the end of 2020, The Blacklist wound up being one of Netflix’s ten most-streamed series that did not originate on the platform, beating out The Vampire Diaries, via The Hollywood Reporter. The season eight premiere on November 13, 2020 allegedly reached an audience that totaled over seven million people, Deadline reports.

Production delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic not only affected the start of the show’s eighth season, but the tail-end of season seven as well. According to TV Insider, the cast and crew were less than a week away from wrapping production on season seven when the pandemic began raging across the United States. Creator Jon Bokenkamp (Bad Seed, Taking Lives) allegedly floated the idea of re-editing the episode that had been interrupted as an audio-only experience, although he finally settled on the idea of animating the missing sequences. “One of our former writers, Nicole Phillips (Zoo, Fringe) had written over a dozen comics for The Blacklist… The look and feel of the show has a pulpiness to it that lends itself to comics, so the concept of animation felt organic for our universe,” Bokenkamp asserted, via TV Insider. The episode reportedly even had to be rewritten so it could function as a season finale, Bokenkamp told TV Insider. In the end, over four million people tuned in to watch the episode on its broadcast date, according to TV Series Finale.

Season eight, episode four of The Blacklist, “Elizabeth Keen,” airs on NBC on January 29 at 8 P.M. Eastern.