NBC Just Renewed 2 Drama Series

NBC is giving a second season to two freshman dramas amid a slew of the network’s cancellations.

The Hunting Party, starring Melissa Roxburgh, and Brilliant Minds, led by Zachary Quinto, will both return for a second season, the network announced Monday as part of its fall 2025 schedule.

While both The Hunting Party and Brilliant Minds will get a second season, The Hunting Party will be switching to Thursdays at 10 p.m., replacing the recently canceled Found, as Brilliant Minds sticks with the Monday 10 p.m. slot, both renewed shows will hold during their respective first seasons.

The Hunting Party and Brilliant Minds both survived NBC’s recent rash of cancellations as the network makes room for NBA programming this fall. The network’s other non-Dick Wolf dramas — The Irrational, Found, and Suits LA — were not so lucky, and all got the axe recently.

Jeff Bader, President, Program Planning Strategy, NBCUniversal Entertainment, addressed the decision to renew The Hunting Party and Brilliant Minds to reporters in NBC’s pre-upfront press call on Saturday

“We actually looked at all these shows. We looked at what their performance was week-to-week, episode to episode, on both linear and digital, to just try and glean which ones we thought had the best ratings story,” he said, as per Deadline. “And then on the creative side, the creative teams did the same thing, which ones have the best potential to capture a new audience, and these were the two shows that made their way to the top.”

Both shows are also being given the opportunity to dive into their second seasons with a full episode order. “One of the things that you’re seeing us really lean into is these sophomore shows,” Bader said. “Brilliant Minds only had 13 episodes in its first season, The Hunting Party only had 10 episodes. We need to give them full seasons and really lean into them and get them established.”

Brilliant Minds, which wrapped its first season in January, is based on the life of queer neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks. Quinto’s Dr. Wolf stars as a “revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist, and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while grappling with their own relationships and mental health.”

The Hunting Party, which wrapped its first season in April, also stars Nick Wechsler, Patrick Sabongui, Josh McKenzie and Sara Garcia as part of a “small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist.”