‘The Blacklist’ Season 7 Premiere: How to Watch, What Time and What Channel

The wait to find out what happens next on The Blacklist is finally over! The NBC crime thriller is back and has a lot of explaining to do following the massive Season 6 finale cliffhanger. The James Spader-led series will debut in its new time Friday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

Fans with DVRs also have the chance to record the series and watch it later, just make sure you record the right times so you don’t miss a second of the action. The episode will also be available on-demand, as well as on the NBC app the day after the episode airs.

The official description for the Season 7 premiere, titled “Louis T. Steinhil (#27)”, reads: “After being abducted by Katarina Rostova (Laila Robbins), Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader) finds himself alone in hostile territory unsure of who, if anyone, he can trust. With few leads to go on, Liz (Megan Boone) and the Task Force venture into unknown danger as they race to find him.”

The Season 6 finale ended with the shocking reveal that the presumed dead Katarina Rostova — Liz’s mother — is in fact alive, after Red finds her in Paris and reunites with her. The former lovers share a kiss and Katarina then drugs Red and takes him into an unmarked van before he has the chance to warn her about an assassination attempt coming her way.

Series producers previously opened up about Katarina’s introduction, calling her the series’ “ultimate bad guy.”

“Is Katarina going to get what she wants or is she not going to get what she wants and go into the wind? We decided that she’s the ultimate bad guy on our show,” executive producer John Eisendrath told Entertainment Tonight.

Katarina’s plans will reportedly be revealed slowly throughout Season 7, though creator Jon Bokenkamp said the task force’s first priority will be saving Red.

“Her endgame is so tethered to the mythology of the show that if she gets it, Reddington is bested. And we know the ultimate answer, right? We know the deepest truth of the blacklist,” Bokenkamp teased. “What she’s after is something that Reddington is deeply protective of, and doesn’t even want to talk about. He’s masking this from the task force. He’s playing it very close to the vest, which he does many times, but I think Reddington knows, and probably Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) knows and [Katarina’s father] Dom (Brian Dennehy) knows that if this woman starts pulling at the thread of truth that Red is so protective of, everything could come unraveled. And Red is in jeopardy of losing everything that he has been so protective of.”

Are you ready? The Blacklist premieres Friday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.