AceShowbiz -

"Game of Thrones" is here to stay. HBO finally announced on Tuesday, April 10 that the record-setting series will be back for a third season. The drama fantasy has shown an excellent rating performance in the second season which gave no reason why HBO will not renew it.

"Series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss raised our expectations for the second season - and then surpassed them," President of HBO Programming Michael Lombardo said in a statement. "We are thrilled by all the viewer and media support we've received for the series, and can't wait to see what Dan and David have in store for next season."

If the creators follow the pattern, then they will take out the story from George R.R. Martin's third book, "A Storm of Swords", which is one of the longest in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Martin is working on the sixth book but he said that it will take him a couple more years to finish it. Therefore, the TV series would catch up with the book series should it live up to sixth season.

"Game of Thrones" had 3.9 million viewers tuning for the second season premiere, a series high and up 74|percent| from the first season. It also had an excellent Week 2 hold which contributed to the season's gross audience of 8.3 million viewers.