So Help Me Todd will be back for a second season. Amid strong ratings, CBS announced today it has renewed the hit drama series starring Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin for premiere in the 2023-24 broadcast season.
The early renewal continues So Help Me Todd’s Cinderella story. Taking a big blow early in its pilot stage when the female lead was recast, with Harden replacing Geena Davis opposite Astin, the project hung in there in the middle of the pack before making a big pilot season finish with strong testing results, landing a series order.
There was also a showrunner change, with Elizabeth Klaviter replacing Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro, who had signed on as EP/showrunners for the pilot only. But, just like NBC’s This Is Us whose trailer exploded after the upfronts, So Help Me Todd quietly gained momentum last summer, placing on lists of the most anticipated fall series among IP-based heavyweights such as The Lord Of the Rings: The Rings Of Power, Walker: Independence, The Winchesters and Quantum Leap.
And just like CBS comedy Ghosts the season before, another show with no recognizable title or huge stars, So Help Me Todd has seen its ratings grow through word of mouth, recently hitting series highs for two weeks in a row.
Since its September launch, So Help Me Todd has become Thursday’s #1 new series, averaging 6.3 million viewers per episode, growing to 7.4 million with live plus 35-day multiplatform viewing, according to Nielsen.
“So Help Me Todd has charmed viewers with the incomparable chemistry between Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin,” said Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment. “With the series’ unique blend of captivating legal drama, laugh-out-loud humor and intriguing family dysfunction, it’s no wonder the audience continues to grow. I am delighted that these two inimitable characters and their entertaining banter will extend into a second season.”
Created by Scott Prendergast, in So Help Me Todd, despite their opposing personalities, a talented but directionless P.I. who is the black sheep of his family begrudgingly agrees to work as the in-house investigator for his overbearing mother, a successful attorney reeling from the recent dissolution of her marriage.
Madeline Wise, Tristen J. Winger, Inga Schlingmann and Rosa Arredondo also star.
Prendergast, Klaviter, Dr. Phil McGraw, Stuart Gillard, Jay McGraw and Julia Eisenman serve as executive producers.
So Help Me Todd, produced by CBS Studios, is the second CBS drama — and second freshman series — to be renewed for the 2023-24 broadcast season, joining previously announced Fire Country. The network also previously renewed comedies Bob Hearts Abishola, The Neighborhood and Ghosts for 2023-24.
So Help Me Todd airs Thursdays at 9 PM on CBS and live and on demand on Paramount+.
