BBC America is cloning another season of Orphan Back! The network made the official announcement at the Television Critics Association press tour today that they've ordered a third season of their excellently thrilling clone-focused drama series. Along with Broadchurch, Orphan Black will return for its new season in 2015.
BBC America's announcement says Season 3 of Oprhan Black will consist of ten episodes, which is the same amount of installments as the previous two seasons. Given the success of the series at BBC America, it's less surprising that they've given it the green light for Season 3 as it is that they waited weeks following the Season 2 finale to make the announcement. Of course, it's the perfect kind of news to break at the TCA press tour, and it comes along with word that they're moving forward with two new drama series, Tatau (from the producers of Being Human) and The Last Kingdom, which is an adaptation of a popular series of novels.
Co-created by Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, Orphan Black premiered on BBC America in March of 2013 and stars Tatiana Maslany as multiple characters, all of whom are clones, each born to different women in 1984. The story centers mainly around Sarah, a woman who finds herself caught up in a major mystery when she assumes the identity of a suicidal woman who looks strikingly like her. When Sarah discovers she's one of numerous clones, her life collides with a few of them -- primarily the brainy Cossima and uptight suburban soccer mom Alison.
The series' cast is brimming with talent, with Tatiana Maslany delivering multiple fantastic performances as her various characters, and Jordan Gavaris offering a bit of humor and some necessary perspective as Sarah's foster brother Fee. Orphan Black was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination for Tatiana Maslany, and we really wouldn't hate it if her name -- and/or any of the supporting cast, writers, directors producers -- showed up on tomorrow's list of Emmy nominations. Fingers crossed!
In the meantime, BBC America tooted Orphan Black's horn in their renewal announcement, noting that the series was the #1 television show on Twitter and Tumblr for the day of premiere and was the #1 ad-supported cable drama on Twitter for the week. The series has had over 750,000 Tumblr notes from almost 140,000 fans during Season 2. While social networking surely counts for a lot in this day and age of television, the ratings count too, and in Orphan Black's case, the series' Season 2 finale earned series highs in Live+8 among total viewers. It's also the first ever ad-supported drama series to double its ratings from Season 1 to Season 2 in A25-54 and 18-49 in Live+7. Hopefully Orphan Black's audience will grow even more between now and Season 3 Being available streaming certainly helps. While it's not on Netflix, the first season is available streaming on Amazon Prime.
