The ratings for Life’s Wednesday debut this week weren’t great, but they were good enough to earn the show a full season on NBC.

The network announced late Friday that it’s picking up nine more episodes of the second-year cop show, which stars Damian Lewis. The move comes after the series showed signs of ratings improvement following a move from Friday to Wednesday nights.

“This unique crime drama continues to offer consistent and compelling stories each week,” says Teri Weinberg, executive vice president of NBC Entertainment. “We love ‘Life’ and are thrilled that we get to see more of these characters and amazing new cases.”

Wednesday’s episode drew about 5.9 million viewers, in line with what Life had been averaging on Friday nights. Its performance among adults 18-49, however, improved by 33 percent, from a 1.5 average on Fridays to 2.0. The show also grew in its second half-hour coming off a weak Knight Rider lead-in.

The show is the second of NBC’s sophomore class to earn a full-season pickup; the network picked up the back nine episodes of Chuck before the season started. First-year shows Knight Rider and Kath & Kim have also earned full seasons.

Source: Zap2It