Syfy renews Being Human for third season

The headline pretty much says it all: Syfy Channel wants to keep the U.S. remake of Being Human around for another year, giving it a renewal four weeks into the new season.

Season Two premiered on January 16 to 1.81 million viewers, and has averaged 1.64 million in four episodes. So far the season is pulling in more viewers than 10 out of the 13 episodes that aired in Season One. Syfy is boasting a 27 percent increase in the Adults 18 to 49 demographic, 35 percent in Adults 25 to 54, and 15 percent overall.

With DVR-delayed viewing factored in, the season premiere was up 3 percent over last year, with an impressive 2.4 million viewers.

Syfy also gave a third season to reality series Face Off, which is also currently airing its second season.

The third year of Being Human will also include 13 episodes, and is expected to begin in January 2013. It’s an easy renewal for Syfy, especially considering the fact that Being Human is the network’s most female-skewing series with a 52 percent female audience.

The U.K. original, meanwhile, just started its fourth season on BBC3 on Sunday. The series is in a major transition after the loss of a couple of cast members (Aidan Turner and Sinead Keenan) and the departure of another (Russell Tovey) after the current season.  Being Human creator Toby Whithouse and his team have introduced a new vampire character (Damien McLony’s Hal), promoted Season Three guest star Michael Socha (Tom) to regular status, and put ghost Annie (Lenora Crichlow) up-front and center in the show’s promotion.

The U.S. series is largely following the major brushstrokes of the plotlines of the original, though it has its own writers. It remains to be seen if the two will diverge any further, particularly when the U.S. series catches up to the point where the original lost a main character.

Being Human airs Mondays at 9/8c on Syfy, and stars Sam Witwer, Meaghan Rath, and Sam Huntington.  Next week’s episode “Addicted to Love” guest stars Dichen Lachman, of Dollhouse fame (as well as a short spot on Torchwood: Miracle Day).

In the U.K., the new season of Being Human airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on BBC3.