Renewed: Wilfred

Bad boy doggie Wilfred has been renewed in the US.

The comedy starring Jason Gann and Elijah Wood will have a third season on FX, but showrunner David Zuckerman will step down and be replaced by Reed Agnew and Eli Jorne, writers from the first two seasons.

Zuckerman will continue as an exec producer along with Australia’s Joe Connor and Ken Connor from Renegade.

Nick Grad from FX said in a statement. “David Zuckerman has done an amazing job adapting and reconceiving Wilfred for FX. It was his decision to step down from the showrunner’s post, but we’re very happy he is going to stay involved with the show. Both we and David have great faith in the ability of Reed and Eli to seamlessly step up and take over the reins. I have no doubt they’ll do a great job.”

Joe Connor from Renegade told TV Tonight, “We’re really thrilled it’s going to a third season and thrilled we’ve found great partners with FX and Prospect Park in the US.

“What we’re really proud of is that innovative and interesting Australian television will translate and migrate. We hope that it’s a flashing beacon to Australian networks that they can mount challenging programmes.

“It goes back to the fantastic creative team we had with Tony Rogers, Adam Zwar and Jason Gann and Matt Campbell and Debbie Lee (then) at SBS and our other partners in the US, ICM, who helped us get Wilfred up in the first place.”

The bong-smoking dog, which was once the subject of negative press citing it as a waste of government funding, is now the only Australian series to progress to a third season in a US remake -including retaining its original star, Jason Gann.

The US adaptation airs in Australia on ELEVEN.

Additional source: Deadline