For the last two summers, “Wilfred” has been one half of a fascinating, dark comedy pairing on Thursday nights on FX, leading in to “Louie.” But with Louis CK deciding to keep his series off the air for all of 2013, “Wilfred” will have to go it alone this summer.
FX announced today that “Wilfred” will return for its third season on Thursday, June 20 at 10. For the first two weeks of the season, we’ll get back-to-back original episodes at 10 and 10:30, followed by a week off for the Fourth of July, followed by the show shifting to a once a week schedule Thursdays at 10.
When I spoke with FX executives in January, they suggested they might have a new comedy ready in time to pair with “Wilfred,” but FX says it’s not likely at this point that anything new will be airing at 10:30 later in the summer. (It may be that the launching of the comedy-centric FXX spin-off channel made this a lower priority than it was at the start of the year.)
The new season will bring back the full cast, plus recurring guests Chris Klein, Mary Steenburgen and Dwight Yoakam, along with some new guest stars like Gina Gershon, Angela Kinsey and Lance Reddick. This will be the show’s first season without David Zuckerman as showrunner, as he took a step back to let writer/producers Reed Agnew and Eli Jorne take the job.