HBO has officially announced that it has renewed Lena Dunham’s comedy Girls for a third season.
The series has received a 12-episode order, compared to 10 episodes for the first two seasons. Dunham let it slip that season 3 was in production when she appeared on Alec Baldwin’s podcast, “Here’s the Thing.”
“We’re starting season three at the end of March,” Dunham told Baldwin. “I’m so excited.”
Dunham went on to say, “HBO contractually has me, I think, as an actor for six years. I should pay more attention to my deals, but I’m just so excited to have my job, I just go, ‘OK, whatever you say.’ ”
Dunham has a lot to be excited about. Girls won two Golden Globes for best comedy series and best comedy actress. That same night, the second season of Girls drew 866,000 viewers . That number was slightly down from the series premiere, but it has since exceeded 3.8 million viewers through DVR, repeats, and online viewings. The most recent episode pulled in 572,000 viewers for the initial telecast and 519,000 for the repeat an hour later.
The first season averaged 4.6 million viewers per episode, according to Variety .
Even though the show will likely be on the air for a couple more years per Dunham’s contract, she has already started thinking about what the series finale will look like. Essentially, the characters are “more okay than they were when they started. Or they’re less okay, but we have an understanding of what kind of adult we think they’re gonna be,” Dunham said.
