*NBC is extending its business with Jennifer Lopez.
The Peacock announced Friday that it has renewed her freshman series “Shades of Blue” for a second season, which will coincide with season 2 of her three-year residency in Las Vegas.
Her current third job as a judge on “American Idol,” will not be a factor next year, as this current season is its last. Last summer, J.Lo had to work out a way to film “Shades” episodes and “Idol” auditions at the same time.
“We knew that I would have to start doing the auditions while we were filming the show, so I would go on weekends to film ‘Idol,’” Lopez told the TCA at its Winter Press Tour last month. “It was challenging. It was hard, but we got through it, and I just tried to take it day by day.”
NBC entertainment president Jennifer Salke acknowledged her job situation in announcing the renewal of “Shades.” “We want to thank Jennifer, who is the hardest-working woman we know, for her incredible efforts as both the star and producer of this show, as well as well as our other amazing producers and cast for all their tireless work in creating one of the most compelling dramas on television today,” she said. “We’re so excited to find out where this story will lead and have them raise the stakes even higher in what we know will be a fantastic second season.”
The series, featuring J.Lo as a semi-crooked cop and single mom forced by the FBI to rat on her crooked squad to avoid prison (which would orphan her teen daughter), averages 11.2 million viewers in its 10 p.m. Thursday time slot. Her partner, a rookie African American cop played by Dayo Okeniyi, grapples with his accidental shooting of an unarmed black man, and his squad’s insistence on covering it up.
This week, Lopez will enter the live portion of “American Idol’s” final season, which follows the Jan. 20 launch of her Vegas residency, All I Have.
Below, the multi-hyphenate explains how she manages to fit all three into her schedule:
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