It's Official: Season 3 of "Chuck"!

In news that can only be properly classified as "awesome," the most entertaining series on TV today, "Chuck," has been picked up by NBC for a third season. Keep making decisions like this guys and I may eventually forgive you for cancelling "Freaks and Geeks." Okay, well I won't do that, but still. Good on you, NBC. Thanks to the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan for the news:

Awesome news: 'Chuck' to return for a third season

It's official: "Chuck" is coming back for a 13-episode third season.

This. Is. Awesome.

Here are various stories/blog posts on the renewal news:

* The Hollywood Reporter
* Variety
* The Televisionary
* TV Guide
* The Los Angeles Times
* Zap2it.com
* Eonline.com
* Entertainment Weekly
* TV Week

Keep checking with those sources and here Monday and Tuesday for updates on "Chuck's" renewal. If further details emerge, I'll post them on this site. (For previous "Chuck" reviews and interviews, go here.)


Now, first of all, I just want to reiterate that I"m happy about the fact that "Chuck" is coming back. Look at this video clip -- it captures how happy I feel.

But as you've seen as you read all the stories above, there's a catch to the "Chuck" renewal. To ensure another season, "Chuck" will have to cut its budget (as is apparently the case with "Dollhouse," which is also coming back). The show will have to let go a couple of writers, and some actors who were series regulars in Season 2 may only be recurring guest stars in Season 3.

I absolutely don't want to lose the Buy More mayhem from the show (and I've not seen any reports that that will necessarily be the case). And the writing on the show was so good in Season 2 that the thought of losing any ace "Chuck" scribes is a tough development to ponder.

But critic Alan Sepinwall is optimistic about "Chuck's" potential Season 3 awesomeness: "I have faith that Fedak, Schwartz and company can make the show work on a tighter budget, and maybe, if the ratings are decent enough (and compared to some of what NBC has aired since the 'Chuck' finale, 'Chuck' looks like a world-beater for them), that 13-episode order becomes 22."

Amen! Preach on, brother!

All in all, I'll take a world in which "Dollhouse" and "Chuck" both get renewed. Time's James Poniewozik makes the argument that "smaller audiences and more creative—unfortunately for the talent, cheaper—budget arrangements can mean that shows survive that a few years ago would have been to tiny for broadcast. If 'Firefly' had debuted in 2009 instead of 2002, we'd be celebrating its second-season pickup today."

As I noted in this post on the renewal of "Dollhouse," we may be entering an age in which audiences, which now have far more ways to watch programs, also have far more say over which shows stay and go. In this case, the fan campaign to save "Chuck" is widely credited with helping the show get a third season. It's far better for a network to have a collection of passionate fan bases than to assume that throwing a bunch of stuff at a wall and hoping some of it will stick is a reasonable and rational business model.

In other words: "Chuck" fans are awesome. Well done, folks.

But this is no time for complacency. Give Me My Remote, one of the originators of the fan campaign, had this to say: "I think the worst thing we could do right now would be to let up on our 'Chuck' chatter. Let’s continue to do what we can to try to get new fans for next season. Lend out your DVDs and keep talking up the show."

Oh, and one more thing. When it comes to how I feel about NBC's decision, let me quote John Casey:

"You've done good work here."