It’s official: HBO has ordered a third season of “Girls.”
The comedy’s producers have been talking for a while like the third season was already a done deal – earlier this week, star/creator/producer Lena Dunham told Alec Baldwin on a podcast that the third season would film in some of the studio space “30 Rock” was vacating – but the actual announcement didn’t come until this afternoon.
By conventional ratings measures, “Girls” doesn’t look so spectacular, as the season 2 premiere only drew 866,000 for its first telecast, and only 1.6 million viewers over multiple airings that night. But in total, across many platforms (including HBOGo), more than 3.8 million have watched that episode so far. Besides, HBO doesn’t really rely on conventional ratings measures – or on ratings at all – but on things that will drive subscriptions, enhance the company’s brand, etc. And “Girls” has been a huge critical success, has won several awards (including a pair of Golden Globes earlier this month) and is a show that people are talking about – whether they like it or hate it.
The third season will consist of 12 episodes, as opposed to the 10 for the first two seasons. The third episode of season 2 airs Sunday night at 9 on HBO.