That was fast! Matlock has been renewed for Season 2 at CBS, making it the first new show of the Fall 2024 season to be guaranteed another go and the first broadcast network renewal of the season overall.
Matlock Season 2 will premiere in 2025, CBS announced on Tuesday, October 22. The renewal comes just before Matlock Season 1 Episode 3 airs this Thursday, October 24 at 9/8c.
Matlock stars Emmy and Academy Award winner Kathy Bates as Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a brilliant septuagenarian who achieved success in her younger years and decides to rejoin the workforce at a prestigious law firm where she uses her unassuming demeanor and wily tactics to win cases all while investigating a deeply personal secret of her own. It’s a reimagined version of the classic Andy Griffith series of the same name. Skye P. Marshall, Jason Ritter, Beau Bridges, David Del Rio, Leah Lewis, and Sam Anderson also star.
The procedural clearly got off to a great start at the network, and its major premiere twist no doubt has kept viewers hooked. Just two episodes in, it already has a 100 percent average Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a 7.70 out of 10 rating from all critics on Rotten Tomatoes (with RT’s top critics, it scored 7 out of 10). The average audience score is 81 percent.
Viewership for the first episode also delivered a five-year high for a non-post-Super Bowl series premiere for CBS, with an average of 7.73 million viewers tuning in for Episode 1 on Sunday, September 22, according to Deadline.
Related‘Matlock’ Boss Reveals Matty’s Secret History With Her Suspects
The Code‘s April 2019 series premiere was the last non-post-Super Bowl viewership high on CBS. The Code‘s series premiere aired after NCIS. It was canceled after one season. Bates’ Matlock did air after an NFL game on the network, but not directly after. Episode 1 began after 60 Minutes on September 22, and then an encore of the premiere aired in its official Thursday time slot on October 10. New episodes will continue to air on Thursdays at 9/8c from here on out.
“This reconceived Matlock was devised by Jennie Snyder Urman with a brilliant surprise plot twist, and we knew we had something very special the moment we saw the first episode brought to life by the incredibly talented Kathy Bates,” Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment, said in a statement on Tuesday, October 22. “The audience reception and critical acclaim for it has been overwhelming. We can’t wait to get started on a second season.”
Matlock is created and executive produced by Snyder Urman, the creator of Jane the Virgin — one of that show’s alums, Yael Grobglas, is a guest star in Matlock‘s upcoming third episode. Additional executive producers are Bates, Joanna Klein, Eric Christian Olsen, and Kat Coiro (who also directs). The series is produced by CBS Studios for the CBS Television Network and distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
Matlock, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS
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