La Brea renewed for a second season

NBC’s sci-fi drama La Brea has been renewed for a second season following its rating success.

The series is centred on a mother and son separated from father and daughter after a massive sinkhole mysteriously opens up in Los Angeles. The show gets its name from the real life La Brea tar pits in LA where a number of ancient fossils have been discovered.

The show is the number 1 new show of the fall in the adults 18-49 demographic and NBC said that it had reached more than 47 million viewers across linear and digital platforms.

The pilot, which aired September 28, stands at a 3.6 in 18-49 and 19.8M viewers.

It has also become the best launch of any new NBC show on the network’s sister streamer Peacock and is the number 3 new show of the season in total Live+3 viewers after NCIS: Hawai’i and FBI International.

The show which was originally pitched as Lost-meets-Land of the Lost, comes from Keshet Studios in association with Universal Television.

Keshet Studios president Traugott told Deadline he was pleased with the amount of marketing support surrounding the show, which took a long time to make it to air as a result of the pandemic — it was in the middle of producing its pilot when Covid hit and was picked up straight-to-series in January 2021.

“The only thing worse than a network not liking your show is that they love it so much that there’s that pressure. We have no control over the ratings,” he added. “NBC and Universal have been so supportive because La Brea has the potential to draw in audiences, and if they turn up, the pressure is on us to keep bringing them back.”

La Brea stars Zea, Eoin Macken, Jack Martin, Zyra Gorecki, Jon Seda, Chiké Okonkwo, Karina Logue, Veronica St. Clair, Rohan Mirchandaney, Nicholas Gonzalez, Lily Santiago, Chloe De Los Santos and Josh McKenzie. See cast list here.