JUST IN: What Happened to ‘The Blacklist’s Tom Keen Spinoff?

What Happened to ‘The Blacklist’s Tom Keen Spinoff?

As a fan-favorite character from the long-running TV show The Blacklist, which stars James Spader and Megan Boone, Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) having his own spinoff show seems like a great idea on paper. From a missing boy to a ruthless assassin to a stay-at-home dad, what’s not to love about Tom? Unfortunately, Tom’s spinoff, The Blacklist: Redemption only managed to air for one season before being cancelled. The eight episodes aired on NBC in 2017 during The Blacklist‘s hiatus from February to April in the midst of Season 4 — between episodes 15 and 16. Loyal fans tuned in to discover this elusive character’s backstory but turns out, his backstory is just as elusive as he is. Shrouded in secrecy and duplicitous motives, Redemption was unable to flesh out a cohesive backstory for Tom throughout its short run in 2017, ultimately leading to the show’s cancellation.

What Is ‘The Blacklist: Redemption’ About?

Tom is introduced as Elizabeth Keen’s (Megan Boone) sketchy husband in the very first episode of The Blacklist, and in later seasons we learn about his connection (or rather employment) to the enigmatic leader of a criminal empire, Raymond Reddington (James Spader). In Season 4, Episode 13, “Annabelle Stone,” Tom finds out his father “died” in a plane crash, fueling his prior questions about his family, and thus decides to embark on a flight to New York and join his mother in a special operatives group.

In Redemption, Tom finds out his dad, Howard Hargrave (Terry O’Quinn), is very much not dead and is also feuding with Susan “Scottie” Hargrave (Famke Janssen), who is also Tom’s mother, unbeknownst to her. Becoming his father’s double agent, Tom joins his mother’s corporation, Halcyon Aegis, alongside notorious criminals from Reddington’s blacklist, Soloman (Edi Gathegi) and Nez Rowan (Tawny Cypress). Tom returns to his old ways as an undercover operative agent, engaging in unsavory missions and boasting a carefully curated

poker face at all times. By the end of the season, everyone’s agendas seem even more convoluted and hazy, concluding with Tom’s phone call to Elizabeth as he decides to return home, leading to the beginning of Season 5 of The Blacklist.

Why Was ‘The Blacklist: Redemption’ Cancelled?

Only managing to garner an average of 6.3 million viewers and a low 1.2 rating throughout its run according to The Hollywood Reporter, Redemption paled significantly compared to the flagship show. With only these measly numbers to back it up, and because it was one of the few NBC shows produced in an outside studio, Sony Pictures Television, the pitch for a renewal utterly failed, leading to the cancelation of the spinoff. With its soft launch filling in the time slot The Blacklist was aired in, coupled with a complete change in genre and storytelling, it

is easy to see where the show went wrong. During the Television Critic Association’s press tour in 2017, executive producer John Eisendrath described Redemption as an “espionage thriller,” further commenting: “It makes it a completely different animal. The stories we tell are different. The way they go about catching the bad guys and doing their jobs, they can’t arrest anyone. It is an entirely different way of telling the story. It’s a spinoff, yes, but it has its own very specific way of telling its stories.”