ABC has decided the fate of freshman show R.J. Decker after its recent first-season finale rocked fans with a huge character death.
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The show’s star, Scott Speedman, is set to return to the title role for a second season, according to Deadline. The outlet points out that R.J. Decker was the last scripted show to join nine others in coming back next season (that’s a total of seven dramas and three comedies, per Deadline).
ABC dropped R.J. Decker alongside the Scrubs reboot back in March. The show, about a journalist ex-con turned private investigator, enjoyed a great lead-in with the massively popular dramady High Potential. According to Deadline, it was the highest rated10 PM drama premiere in half a decade for ABC.
While the ratings for broadcast TV tapered off a bit, it’s remained a solid performer on ABC’s Hulu streaming platform.
Why ‘R.J. Decker’ Fans Needed a Season 2
Of course, this is good news for fans of the new show, as the season finale was a bit controversial and begged for a follow-up.
Spoilers for R.J. Decker Season 1 Episode “Even Walls Fall Down” ahead.
In the Season 1 finale, “Even Walls Fall Down,” R.J. (Speedman) finally discovered why Victor Ochoa (David Zayas) had his son Lucas (Maximo Salas) steal his camera. It contained a snapshot of Victor’s henchman near the murder scene of a woman who had refused a business deal with him.
After a tip from the henchman, Emi (Jaina Lee Ortiz) and R.J. found enough evidence to put Victor away for good. But just as the duo was about to close in, they found the season’s villain taking an unexpected and seemingly permanent swim in his pool.
That’s right, they punched out on a major chracter death.
Showrunner Rob Doherty admitted recently that he was already second-guessing his decision to off Zayas’s character.
“After meeting David Zayas, getting to work with him, getting to be there and watch him do what he does, that had me second-guessing my decision to kill off Victor,” Doherty told TVLine. “David was just so fun to watch. He elevated every scene he was in, so that made it hard.”
However, Doherty eventually chalked up the character death to one of those classic “good problems.”
“For us as writers, though, it’s a good problem to have. It will give us a ton of storytelling runway as we move hopefully into a second season.”