Viewers may not have turned out in droves for the premiere episodes, but Halle Berry’s summer series Extant was a huge ‘On Demand’ hit and was DVR’d enough times to convince CBS that it warrants a second season.
According to Variety, the network has renewed Extant as well as Under the Dome, both from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV and CBS Television Studios. “Dome” will be in its third season.
Variety reports:
Extant was a big bet for the Eye as it starred Berry in her first TV series role. The series’ live viewing stats in its Wednesday 10 p.m. slot were modest but the cumulative audience via DVR, VOD and streaming made it worthy of a second year. “Dome’s” aud was down from its first season but still averaged a healthy 11 million viewers each week.
As with “Dome,” CBS cut a deal with Amazon Prime to make “Extant” episodes available for streaming four days after each seg premiered on CBS. That extra licensing coin has helped CBS pay for its high-end summer originals.
“We’re committed to delivering our viewers and advertisers year-round programming with a wide variety of storytelling,” said CBS Entertainment chairman Nina Tassler. “We continue to see summer as a great place for unique concepts, innovative business models and passionate television audiences.”
In other CBS news, the summer legal drama Reckless has been cancelled. There’s no word yet on the fate of drama Unforgettable, which wrapped its third season last month.
Next year, the CBS summer drama schedule will include the new entry Zoo, based on the James Patterson sci-fi thriller.
