Comedy Central Renews Futurama

NEW YORK: Comedy Central has given the greenlight to 26 new episodes of Twentieth Century Fox Television’s Futurama, created by Matt Groening, after resurrecting the show last year.

The first installment of 13 new episodes will premiere in the summer of 2012, with the remainder of season seven due to roll out in the summer of 2013. Season six premiered on Comedy Central last June, seven years after being canceled by FOX (it originally ran from 1999 to 2003). Throughout the summer it averaged 2.5 million viewers each week. Comedy Central previously fared well airing all 72 original episodes of the show.

"Successfully bringing the show back last summer was gratifying enough," said David Bernath, the cable network’s executive VP of program strategy and multiplatform programming. "Now, being able to extend the series for two more years is beyond our expectations! The dedicated fans have spoken and we are excited to bring them Futurama for the foreseeable future."

Twentieth Century Fox Television’s chairmen, Gary Newman and Dana Walden, said in joint statement: "Matt [Groening] and David [X. Cohen] created one of the most brilliantly subversive animated comedies ever made in Futurama and we consider its continued life on Comedy Central to be a huge victory for this studio. This show is a tremendous labor of love for all concerned, from its talented voice cast to the incredible writers and animators who pour so much of themselves into every episode. And its fans are among the most loyal and passionate there are, so we’re especially pleased to be able to promise them many more original episodes to look forward to in the years ahead."