‘Life’ Lands Big Ratings and a New Player

Hooray for Life! When the NBC cop dramedy returned on Wednesday for its first fresh episode of 2009, the (inexplicable) bubble series earned ratings that were 30 percent more impressive than the numbers it got for its last new new episode way back in December.

I personally want to thank the smart, witty, gorgeous, and supremely wonderful 6.76 million viewers who took the time to watch the best thing on television at that time. Seriously — I’ll be checking out Lost and Lie to Me, the show’s main 9pm EST competition, online this weekend (thank goodness for Internet streaming!).

There’s another unexpectedly nice change coming to Life, as well, in the form of Night Stalker and film actress Gabrielle Union. Since series lead Sarah Shahi (Dani Reese) is four months along with child, Union has been snatched up for a multi-episode arc. Her character will be partnered with Zen master Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) while Dani is off hiding her belly cooling her heels on an FBI task force, thanks to some as-yet unspecified tension between her and her current partner.

Shahi won’t be pregnant on the show, but I’ve no doubt that Union is going to do a fine job helping out with continuity during the upcoming plot twist. Bring her on!

Life airs Wednesdays on NBC at 9pm EST.