HBO Renews ‘Treme’ For Fourth And Final Season

HBO announced today that it will be giving its New Orleans drama Treme a fourth and final season.

The episode count, as well as the premiere date for the fourth season, have not been announced yet. Series co-creators David Simon said hinted that the fourth season may not have a large number of episodes.

Simon told Nola.com:

“We are going to be back for a season 3.5 … HBO, upon viewing the 10 (season-three episodes) that we gave them and what we’ve done, they want to see the end of the story. They fought very hard to give us half a loaf. We’re going to take it and run.”

Simon later clarified his comment to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, saying that HBO has given him a lump sum to finish the series. The Treme creator said that he probably has enough money to complete a four to six episode season.

Simon said:

“HBO has offered us a lump sum to budget a conclusion to Tremé and we are trying to figure out how to stretch that amount in the best possible way. Right now, we are tentatively looking at anywhere between four and six hours of programming, depending on a variety of things… We’ll do the best we can with the story arcs and try to conclude Tremé in a resonant way.”

Treme, which focuses on life in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, has drawn in about 2.2 million weekly viewers which is far below the numbers pulled in by other HBO shows like Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire.

Do you watch Treme? The third season premieres tonight on HBO.