TNT will bring back 'Southland' for third season

Cable network TNT has signed on for a third season of "Southland," the police drama that NBC cut loose late last year.

TNT, which had acquired the rights to "Southland's" first season and the six episodes  for Season Two that NBC passed on, said it has ordered 10 new episodes from executive producer John Wells and Warner Bros. The episodes will begin airing in  January.

A renewal of "Southland" by TNT was no guarantee, and it's even a little surprising because the audience for the show is much smaller than other TNT originals. According to Nielsen, the six original episodes for "Southland" averaged about 2.7 million viewers. "The Closer" is TNT's biggest hit, with almost 8 million viewers, while "Men of a Certain Age" and "Hawthorne" both average over 4 million viewers.

To do a third season of "Southland" for TNT, production costs likely will come down. Most cable shows shoot on a tighter schedule and pay lower salaries.

On the plus side, while the audience for "Southland" is smaller than that of TNT's other original shows, it also has a median age of 47, the lowest of any TNT series.

-- Joe Flint

Comments

[D]

This is a great show that just needs time to develop a bigger audience. Glad to hear its coming back.

[cinnamon barks]

I agree -- my whole family is hooked.

[Thomas Robinson]

Good. If they can acquire and resurrect "Life" , which was also dropped by NBC,
TNT would have a lock on well written police dramas.

[Tim]

Perhaps the numbers might be a bit bigger for the third season. I would figure that not too many viewers that watched the original show on NBC did their homework to know it moved to TNT. Let's hope lower production costs won't effect the output of this great show!

[Vero]

So happy it's coming back.

[Wayne Bollin]

This is my favorite show! So glad its coming back!