Ahead of its March 8 Season 1 finale, History has ordered a 10-episode second season of its breakout Navy SEAL drama series Six, up from its current eight-episode first season. Production is set to begin this summer.
From A+E Studios and Weinstein Television, and created by father/son duo William and David Broyles, Six has been a strong ratings performer for History, averaging 2.9 million total viewers in Live+3 over the first four weeks. The January 18 premiere drew 3 million total viewers in Live+7, including 1.4 million in adults 25-54 and 1.2 million in adults 18-49.
Six is part of the post-election shift in TV toward more patriotic fare spotlighting America’s heroes in the military. Six followed the breakout success of new USA Network drama Shooter, about a heroic former Marine, which also was renewed for a second season. The broadcast networks have followed suit with four military drama pilots this season: NBC’s For God And Country, Fox’s Behind Enemy Lines, CBS’ SEAL project and the CW’s Valor.
Six follows members of Navy SEAL Team Six, modern American warriors, whose covert mission to eliminate a Taliban leader in Afghanistan goes awry when they uncover a U.S. citizen working with terrorists. In the first season, former SEAL Team Six troop leader, Richard ‘Rip’ Taggart (Walton Goggins), is captured by Boko Haram and it’s up to his former SEAL Team Six brothers – led by Joe Graves (Barry Sloane), Alex Caulder (Kyle Schmid) and Ricky “Buddha” Ortiz (Juan Pablo Raba) – to put their differences aside to locate and rescue their former troop leader. Edwin Hodge, Dominic Adams, Brianne Davis, Nadine Velazquez, Jaylen Moore, Donny Boaz, and Nondumiso Tembe also star.
“Six is a captivating drama series that embraces our recent history, while being immensely relevant in the climate of today’s culture,” said Jana Bennett, President & General Manager of History. “It has struck a genuine chord with our audience and we’re proud to continue to tell the courageous stories, both on and off the battlefield, of the complex lives of this elite military group.”
William Broyles, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, David Glasser, Nicolas Chartier, Alfredo Barrios, Jr., George W. Perkins, Bruce C. McKenna, David Broyles, Barry Jossen and Lesli Linka Glatter are executive producers.
Six, which airs Wednesdays at 10 PM, may have put an end to a lengthy search by History over the last several years for a second strong scripted series to join flagship Vikings.