CBS Renews ‘Under the Dome’ for a Second Season

LOS ANGELES â€" To the surprise of no one, CBS said on Monday that it would bring back its huge summer hit “Under the Dome” for a second series of episodes next summer.

Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, made the announcement here at a session with television critics and reporters. He also announced that Stephen King, who wrote the novel the series is based on, would write the first episode of the second season.

CBS initially bought the project as an experiment and made no decision on whether to limit it to just a single season. But it kept open that possibility in case the show took off in the ratings. “Dome” has been a hit from its opening episode, which attracted 13.7 million viewers in its initial ratings. Mr. Moonves said here that the episode’s audience grew to more than 20 million viewers with delayed and streamed viewing included.

The show has been enormously profitable, CBS executives said, with movie advertisers clamoring to buy available commercials in the series.

Mr. Moonves said the network would most likely follow up “Dome” with more short-run series next summer.

Asked if it would be straining credulity to keep the town in the series under a dome for an extended period, he said: “Why can’t they be under the dome for a long period of time? This is television.”