” It’s time to bring our babies home.”
Will Nikki and Jared finally solve the mystery behind their missing son, Keith? Or will they be coerced into returning other loved ones to their families?
The official FOX network introduced us to the freshman drama of Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 1 in January 2023, firmly anchoring us to this riveting, gut-wrenching, case-of-a-week show. Ever since its inception, the fandom base has been on a progressive rise, and by the end of its finale on 27th February 2023, the dynamic duo of Nikki and Jason had become a household name. As the intensity of missing person reports escalated by the hour, more intricate and Byzantine methods were adopted by the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit (MPU) to bring them back.
Due to the dynamic and relevant theories and cases revealed throughout Season 1, the viewers’ intrigue peaked, and in the finale episode, the final scene left us bottled up with more queries than ever. This translates to a massive cliffhanger that only Season 2 will solve. In that light, it is imperative to note that Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 1 could easily pass off as a bubble show, but the viewers were successful in condensing the liquid bubble into a solid one and preventing it from bursting. The series debut boasted 8.5 million multi-platform viewers, including same and delayed viewing, and the first season bolsters 6.7 million multi-platform viewers.
It is with this same viewership rigor that the loyal fandom has been grappling over the arrival of Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2, whether it is affected by the ongoing strikes, and whether it has been canceled due to a lack of response or update from the network. If you are one of the viewers who has been grappling with similar questions, look no further. We at Web News Observer have compiled all the necessary updates regarding Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2. So continue reading.
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2: Has It Been Canceled?
Au contraire, the series is far from being canceled.
Ever since its monumental arrival in January of 2023 and a hair-raiser finale episode on 27th February 2023, fans have been awaiting a renewal announcement from the official FOX network. Sure enough, our doubts were sealed in March 2023 when the FOX network announced a revival of Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2.
This is BIG! #AccusedOnFOX and #AlertOnFOX have both been renewed for Season 2. pic.twitter.com/NQy2nAyhyp
— Drama Club FOX (@DramaClubFOX) March 23, 2023
The series renewal was confirmed along with “Accused.” Hence, Michael Thorn, President of Scripted Programming at Fox, stated, “Accused and Alert stand out as two of this season’s new broadcast and multi-platform success stories. Looking to 2023–24, we’ll continue to deliver on the powerful storytelling coming from both series, building on our incredible partnership with Sony and further solidifying Fox’s strong slate of dramas, giving our schedule tremendous season-to-season stability.”
Further adding, “Scott, Dania, John, and Jamie have done an incredible job launching Alert and bringing its story into heart-pounding focus, giving us an emotionally intense procedural drama that’s primed for even more success as Carla takes the day-to-day reins, continuing the great work we’ve seen this season.”
So, it will be exciting to see what direction the show creators and writers will take for this freshman crime drama series.
Katherine Pope, the President of Sony Pictures Television, also spoke about the renewal. She shared, “We are excited to continue our long partnership with Fox to bring more Accused and Alert to audiences around the world. It’s wonderful to see these timely, poignant stories resonating with viewers, and we want to congratulate the writers, producers, cast, and crew on their success. We are incredibly proud of their collective work and look forward to seeing where these series go next!”
We are as ecstatic about the renewal as the heads of the network. But the primary question remains: Is it affected by the ongoing strike situation?
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2: Will The Ongoing Strikes Delay Its Release?
With its renewal announcement initiation in March 2023, fans were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 by fall 2023. However, seems like fate had other plans for the freshman hit series.
May 2023 witnessed the onslaught of the gravest writer’s protest in the form of the WGA union. Amidst the protest, several competing networks updated their fall broadcast schedules in anticipation of the dissipation of the strikes within the next month.
However, in July, the actors union SAG-AFTRA also joined in the protest for their wage rights and better protection against the hindsight of Artificial Intelligence. The last time such a large-scale strike sent Hollywood productions into an indefinite hiatus was 63 whole years ago! We are currently in the third month of this double-strike situation, and there are no hopes for any reconciliation through negotiations.
Meet me behind the mall.
📺: #AlertOnFOX pic.twitter.com/46Vtuzj1pu
— Drama Club FOX (@DramaClubFOX) August 6, 2023
In a recent meeting held for the first time in more than three months, the Writers Guild and the AMPTP on Friday failed to reach an agreement to resume contract negotiations. Their inability to agree on terms for returning to the bargaining table comes after their much-anticipated meeting to discuss a possible resumption of talks.
“As of now, there is no agreement on these items, because the AMPTP said they needed to consult with their member studios before moving forward,” the union said in a statement recently.
This caused massive confusion and buzz amidst the fandom. We are currently nearing the end of three months of the strike, and no bouts of development or simmering down have been reported. However, we have come across a recent announcement sharing a possible retreat from the indefinite hiatus situation caused by the strike.
Hollywood’s striking writers and major studios have agreed to hold talks on Friday for the first time since their strike began over higher pay demands in May 2023. “We’ll be back in communication with you sometime after the meeting with further information,” the committee told its members in its note. Though it seems like good news, that doesn’t mean that the chance of the series being delayed further is still on the table if the strikes gain more momentum and don’t reach a resolution within the next few weeks, especially after the meeting.
Given the current volatile situation, when will the new season get a possible release window?
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2: Release Date Updates Admidst Uncertainties
The current strikes and their widespread implications are no stranger to Hollywood as it has severely affected the fate of scripted shows. So, the fate of Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 also rests upon the progress of the strikes. So far as 2023 is concerned, we can safely say that Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 will not be joining us. Why?
Firstly, every competitor network, such as CBS, NBC, and ABC, has altered their fall schedules for 2023 following the volatile situation of the strike, knowing that it is not going to end anytime soon. Most of their initially approved fall programs have been shifted to a mid-season 2024 release that features the months of January, February, March, and April of 2024. Secondly, the news was itself confirmed by FOX when it released its updated fall 2023 schedule, albeit later than its other competitive networks, and Alert is nowhere to be found on the list.
However, much like its competing networks, FOX might resort to filling up its fall schedule blanks with reruns of previously anticipated fall premiers.
Hence, we can assume that, like its competing networks, FOX will be sticking to a mid-2024 release for Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2. Until further development on the strike situation, we cannot provide a finalized date for its release, only a predicted one. Stay tuned to this space and check out the social media handles of the series and network to get new updates on Season 2’s arrival.
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 Cast: Who Will Reprise Their Roles?
The main cast members from the first season who are expected to reprise their roles in the second season are as follows:
- Scott Caan as Jason Grant- Nikki’s ex-husband, works in the Missing Persons Unit with her to help people find their missing loved ones. He was formerly a private security contractor
- Dania Ramirez as Nikki Batista, the Captain of the Missing Persons Unit and Jason’s ex-wife
- Ryan Broussard as Mike Sherman; Adeola Role as MPU Detective Kemi Adebayo
- Graham Verchere as Lucas Hadley/Keith
Moreover, the recurring cast members who are also expected to return are as follows:
- Petey Gibson as C Hemingway, supervisor of the Missing Persons Unit’s forensic imaging unit
- Fivel Stewart as Sidney Grant, Jason and Nikki’s daughter
- Elana Dunkelman as Rachel, medical examiner.
The show will have a new showrunner for season two with Carla Kettner, who was an executive producer of The Blacklist, replacing John Eisendrath, who served as showrunner for season one. The show comes from Sony Pictures Television, an independent studio without its own network or streaming service, which means that they were able to be more flexible in terms of deal-making. They are co-produced with Fox Entertainment. The series is executive produced by Jamie Foxx and John Eisendrath, as well as Kettner.
News regarding any newcomers will only be released in the progressive months leading up to the premiere date of Season 2. Stay tuned because we will be religiously updating this space regarding the same.
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 Plot: What Can We Expect?
*Spoiler Alert*
Since filming for Season 2 had been catapulted into an indefinite hiatus given the implications of the ongoing strikes, no statements on Season 2 expectations have been revealed by the series members as well as the cast.
However, when speaking to Deadline, former showrunner John Eisendrath expressed stated:
“There’s definitely going to be a serialized component, a story for their family and their relationship that I have in mind for next year. It will be different, but I’m hopeful that every season could have a contained, mysterious, serialized story.
That goes alongside the endless numbers of missing person cases. There are all kinds of personal stories that I am looking forward to, like exploring the love triangle between Jason and Nikki and Mike.
I love Kemi and exploring more of who she is. We just touched on how she became the person she is and her relationship with her dad. I’m confident we have a lot of incredibly interesting ground to cover.”
For now, though, here’s a description of the series from Fox:
“Co-created by John Eisendrath (the executive producer of The Blacklist) and superstar Jamie Foxx, Alert: Missing Persons Unit is a procedural drama set in the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit (MPU). Each episode features a heart-pounding, life-or-death search for a missing person that runs alongside police officers Jason Grant’s (Scott Caan, Hawaii Five-O) and Nikki Batista’s (Dania Ramirez, Devious Maids) season-long quest to find out the truth about their long-lost son.
“Six years ago, while working overseas, Jason received the call that every parent fears – he and Nikki’s son, Keith (Graham Verchere, The Good Doctor), had gone missing. From that moment forward, the lives of Jason, Nikki, and their daughter, Sydney (recurring guest star Fivel Stewart, Atypical), were turned upside down. The frantic search to find Keith began and the mystery about his disappearance continues to this day.
“Throughout the search to find Keith, Jason, and Nikki’s marriage deteriorated and they grew apart. Jason moved into private security, while Nikki was promoted within the Philly P.D. to Head of the MPU, where she has been able to do for others what she wasn’t able to do for herself, bring a loved one back home.
“At the MPU, she leads a team of highly skilled individuals including her current love interest Mike (Ryan Broussard, Only Murders In The Building), whom Nikki met when he was assigned to oversee the search for Keith; Kemi (Adeola Role, The Blacklist), who is proficient in many languages, highly discerning of visual clues and uses her know-how as a shaman to take a holistic approach to her job; and forensic anthropologist C (recurring guest star and newcomer Petey Gibson), who is a master at reconstructing the faces of those who have disappeared. Together, the team works to find the missing, abducted, or kidnapped, and help reunite them with their loved ones before it’s too late.
“When Jason receives a possible proof-of-life photo that Keith is very much alive, he and Nikki will reunite personally and professionally to continue the fight for their son.
To understand where Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 might pick up from, here is an episode run-down to help you predict the progressive storyline for the next season:
S1.E1 ∙ Chloe
January 8, 2023
The MPU investigates the abduction of a young child, whose abduction is likely revenge related to her father’s work.
S1.E2 ∙ Hugo
January 9, 2023
The team investigates when a woman runs down a man and forces him to get in her car at gunpoint; more information about Keith’s kidnapper comes to light.
S1.E3 ∙ Zoey
January 16, 2023
The MPU searches for a college student after she goes missing during a house party; Sidney and Keith try to adjust to normal life again.
S1.E4 ∙ Andy
January 23, 2023
The MPU works to track down the kidnapped son of a doctor, but the case takes a turn when his mother gets in direct contact with the kidnapper; Kemi expresses her concerns for Sidney’s well-being to Nikki and Jason.
S1.E5 ∙ Miguel
January 30, 2023
A foster care worker is reported as missing, but after he ends his own life, the MPU starts to investigate a pregnant woman with whom he has seen and has been missing for 2 years; Sidney follows Keith and fears he may be dangerous.
S1.E6 ∙ Tim and Amy
February 6, 2023
Jason and Mike look for the Allegheny Mountains for a missing couple; Keith connects with a patient at a trauma therapy group.
S1.E7 ∙ Shannon
February 13, 2023
Jason and Nikki protect a twin sister when a missing person case turns into a possible murder investigation; Kemi helps C with his dating life; Keith gets reckless.
S1.E8 ∙ Craig
February 20, 2023
Sidney comes clean about the information surrounding the day of Keith’s disappearance, causing Jason to cast serious doubt on the boy claiming to be his son; Mike’s police mentor brings a disappeared officer’s case to the MPU team.
S1.E9 ∙ Briana
February 27, 2023
When a bride disappears on her wedding occasion, Mike and Kemi get to know that the woman is living a deceptive life.
S1.E10 ∙ Max
February 27, 2023
The mystery surrounding Keith’s disappearance starts to unravel as he tells Jason and Nikki more information about his time in captivity and takes them to a cabin where they find a horrifying scene.
Owing to this, we can expect more case-by-case mystery disappearances, intriguing ways through which the stellar team is successful in recovering the missing persons, and progressive love triangles between an ex-husband and a fiance, not to mention the continuous mystery surrounding the disappearance of their son.
As we progress towards the premiere month for Season 2, more plotlines will be disclosed, and we will be updating this space regarding the upcoming season. So stay tuned!
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2: Episode Count And Where To Watch
The second season is expected to include at least 10 episodes with an average duration of 44–45 minutes, just like the first season, to be consistent with the plotlines.
When released, Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2, along with all the prior episodes, will be available to stream in the following areas:
- Fox Network and official website (after broadcast)
- Hulu Plus: $68.99/month
- FuboTV(Pro): $74.99/month
- Sling Blue: $20/month
- YouTube TV: $64.99/month
You can also stream Alert: Missing Persons Unit by renting or purchasing it from:
- Amazon Instant Video
- iTunes
- Vudu
- Google Play
Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 Official Trailer: Is It Out Yet?
Since there is no announcement of a release date for Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2 yet, we do not have a trailer for the same in possession. Usually, Season teasers and promotional content for an upcoming Season are uploaded 1-2 months prior to its premiere date. Hence, stay patient and keep a close eye on this space for more updates.
Until then, check out the official trailer for Alert: Missing Persons Unit’s first season, which showcases, “Alert is a procedural drama about the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Persons’ Unit (MPU). Each episode features a heart-pounding, life-or-death search for a missing person that runs alongside police officers Jason Grant (Scott Caan, Hawaii 5-0) and his ex-wife Nikki Batista’s (Dania Ramirez, Devious Maids) series-long quest to find out the truth about their long-lost son.”
Stay tuned for more updates on Alert: Missing Persons Unit Season 2, and catch up on Season 1 in the meantime!