James Spader Previews Tonight's Blacklist Premiere

After chatting with Jimmy Fallon about how he was miraculously still able to fit in his wardrobe after "eating and drinking with abandon" for eight months, James Spader explained how The Blacklist got back on track with its new season after the last one got derailed by COVID.

"We ended last season abruptly and, you know, we were in the middle of shooting [episode] 19, which we finished with a sort of hybrid live action and animated that we finished up in the spring," he said on Thursday's Tonight Show. "But we had three episodes that were sort of our climax of the season that were already written, so they got rewritten to sort of work into starting out Season 8 with. But we're basically starting the season with — you know, things are really dire right off the bat. I mean, there's no sort of ramp up like 'oh, we're starting out the season.'  You come in, really, the train's already left the station." 

Season 8 of The Blacklist premieres tonight Friday, November 13, at 8:00 PM ET on NBC.

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.