This image released by NBC shows: James Spader as Raymond "Red" Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The NBC drama is ending after its upcoming tenth season. NBC announced that the series, which stars Spader as FBI informant Raymond Reddington, will have its finale after a run of episodes that begins on Feb. 26. (Will Hart /NBC via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) --
The NBC series "The Blacklist" is closing down.
NBC said Wednesday that the James Spader drama will end after its upcoming season, its 10th on the air. It will return for its final run of episodes on Feb. 26.
Spader has played the character Raymond Reddington, an FBI informant on old criminal colleagues. This last season, Reddington confronts "unparalleled danger" as some of those he's identified seek revenge, NBC said.
The show's 200th episode, a milestone in the often fleeting world of television, will air on March 19.
Diego Klattenhoff, Hisham Tawfiq, Anya Banerjee and Harry Lennix are other regulars on "The Blacklist."
The final episode will air sometime this year. An NBC spokesperson said it's not immediately clear when that will be.
Chuck Woolery hosts a special premiere of the "$250,000 Game Show Spectacular" at the Las Vegas Hilton Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)
Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of "Wheel of Fortune," "Love Connection" and "Scrabble" who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83.
Mark Young, Woolery's podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. "Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a tremendous man of faith, life will not be the same without him," Young wrote.
Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978.
In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV's "Love Connection," for which he coined the phrase, "We'll be back in two minutes and two seconds," a two-fingered signature dubbed the "2 and 2." In 1984, he hosted TV's "Scrabble," simultaneously hosting two game shows on TV until 1990.
"Love Connection," which aired long before the dawn of dating apps, had a premise that featured either a single man or single woman who would watch audition tapes of three potential mates and then pick one for a date.
A couple of weeks after the date, the guest would sit with Woolery in front of a studio audience and tell everybody about the date. The audience would vote on the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest's choice, "Love Connection" would offer to pay for a second date.
Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite set of lovebirds was a man aged 91 and a woman aged 87. "She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, 'I remember wagon trains.' The... Read More
