NBC Airing Figure Skating Competition Instead of 'Blacklist' Friday Night

NBC will not air a new episode of The Blacklist Friday night.

The beloved crime drama will take a break this week, along with drama series Blindspot and news magazine, Dateline, in order to make room for the Ladies Free Skate U.S. Championships figure skating competition airing from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.

The event will be broadcast from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

The Blacklist has undergone a creative Renaissance of sorts following the Season 5 finale when Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) found out that Red (James Spader) is actually an imposter who took over the man's identity decades ago.

The series will return with a new episode next week, which will continue to follow Red as he settles into his new life in prison, while Liz and the rest of the team work on a new case, and she continues to investigate Red's real identity in secret.

The synopsis for "Alter Ego" reads: "While Red argues in court to uphold the validity of his immunity agreement, Liz and the Task Force question a man whose recent inheritance seems too good to be true and Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) offers Red some advice."

Red ended up in jail at the end of the Season 6 premiere, when he was arrested seemingly at random while he bought a pretzel in a New York City street.

The causal arrest by a beat cop led to the possible dismantling of the task force, despite their best efforts to free him so he could continue giving them names and helping them with their missions.

After the New York prosecutor vows to see Red in chains for the rest of his life, and have his prosecution as a big accomplishment to put on her resume when she runs of Governor the state, it appears as if Red's time in prison will be more than he was expecting.

The biggest shocker, however, came later in the episode when Red enlisted Liz to investigate who might have tipped the cops he was in New York. He is convinced that some betrayed him and he makes it his mission to find out who it was, and decide their punishment later.

The show left fans with one last shocking surprise after it was revealed that Liz herself tipped off the police, in order to get Red out of the way so she and her sister could investigate him without obstacles.

The Blacklist returns with new episodes Friday, Feb. 1 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.