HBO Renews ‘Veep’ For Season 3

HBO has renewed its sophomore comedy series Veep for a 10-episode third season, which is set to air next year.

The renewal comes just days after the series hit a season high in total viewers with its most recent episode, drawing 1.32 million viewers, up from 1.11 million the previous week. Veep still has a ways to go to beat the high set by the series premiere, which drew 1.38 million when it debuted on April 22, 2012.

Veep stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, the vice president of the United States. The role earned Louis-Dreyfus an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Tony Hale (Arrested Development) also stars as Gary, Meyer’s right-hand man, Anna Chlumsky (White Collar) as Amy, her chief of staff, and Reid Scott (My Boys) as Dan, a political aide.

The series was created by Armando Iannucci, and was inspired by his previous political satires, The Thick of It and In the Loop. The latter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) in 2009, but lost to Precious.

Iannucci recently discussed the parallels between the series and real life politics, and how more of a focus was put on Selina Meyer’s character development than a commentary on the current state of affairs.

“She’s much more determined and has more of a sense of purpose,” Iannucci said, “and for that reason, we’ve decided with Season 2 to actually give her responsibility, to give her some power and then see how it affects her, you know, that thing of be careful what you wish for, what does it do to you when you do make decisions?”

The second season also explores the personal lives of the other characters, with Gary getting a girlfriend and Amy dealing with her sick father.

“I thought it would be good to see a little bit more of their private life without turning it into a soap opera,” Iannucci said, “so what I wanted to do was to see the private life but always as part of a story about how that private life is affected by what they’re doing during the day.”

Veep airs on HBO Sundays at 10 pm.

Are you excited for a third season of Veep?