CBS Takes Fresh Series ‘God Friended Me’ for Another Season

New CBS series God Friended Me got picked up for season 2 by the network (via The Wrap).

The series has been averaging more than 10 million viewers on Sunday nights, despite sharing the same timeslot of NBC’s Sunday Night Football. CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl said in a statement that the network is thrilled with the direction that the show is taking. “We’re thrilled with how ‘God Friended Me’ has performed on Sundays. It’s one of the top three new series on television, has improved its time period significantly, and continues a long tradition of prestige dramas for CBS on the night,” Kahl said.

“Our amazing cast and producers have done a wonderful job of bringing this series to life each week with humorous and inspirational storylines. Viewers have clearly embraced our characters and the positive message the show delivers,” CBS programming boss Thom Sherman said about the series.

God Friended Me follows the story of atheist podcast host Miles Finer (Brandon Michael Hall) who mysteriously gets a friend request on Facebook from an account named God. With the help of journalist Cara Bloom (Violett Beane) and hacking-expert Rakesh (Suraj Sharma), Miles tries to track down the people behind the account. “God” gives him various friend requests of total strangers who are in need of help. The series, while centered on Christian references, tackles issues on religion, love, sexuality, and the existence of fate.

The network is also renewing other top freshman shows The Neighborhood, FBI, and Magnum P.I. 

Comedy sitcom The Neighborhood, starring Cedric the Entertainer and Max Greenfield, raked in more than 8 million viewers on its pilot debut last October 2. Its most recent episode bagged 6.4 million viewers.

Dick Wolf’s new action drama FBI took a spot in the network’s top new series, drawing about 13 million viewers. The show stars Missy Peregrym and Zeeko Zaki.

The fresh reboot of Magnum P.I. improved the network’s Monday 9 pm timeslot by 32 percent. Frontman Jay Hernandez shares the spotlight with Perdita Weeks, Stephen Hill, and Zachary Knighton.

CBS also has four pilots lined up to premiere this year. Two dramas and two comedies will be in the running for next season.

God Friended Me returns with the episode “The Trouble with the Curve” on February 17, Sunday at 8:30/7:30c on CBS.