NBC Renews Hannibal for a Second Season!

It’s been a long and nerve-racking wait to learn what the fate of NBC’s Hannibal would be.  Two weeks ago NBC announced all of the shows that would be returning for another season, however, Hannibal was suspiciously missing from those announcements.  While all the rumors were saying that Hannibal was safe, it was still strange that we weren’t getting any news about the show from NBC.  Now Hannibal fans can rest easy as Deadline has learned the fate of the gruesome new show.

Hannibal will return next season, either at the midseason point or later, with a 13-episode run.  NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke expressed her enthusiasm for the freshman show by saying “We’re so proud of Bryan [Fuller]‘s vision for a show that is richly textured, psychologically complex, and very compelling.  There are many great stories still to be told.”

So why did it take so long for Hannibal to get a greenlight for season two?  While the show has been a hit with critics and fans, it hasn’t been performing well in terms of TV ratings.  Despite a strong start to it’s first season, Hannibal quickly started to dip and was pulling in less than favorable numbers.  This led to NBC holding off on their decision.  Of course this raises the question of why do we still use the antiquated Nielsen ratings system, but that’s an issue too big to cover in one story.

The good news is that Hannibal is coming back for a second season and if you want to see it come back for a third, then be sure to tell your friends and family about it.  The show can’t exist without viewers like you.