ABC Family Renews 'Pretty Little Liars' for Fourth Season

ABC Famliy

"Pretty Little Liars"

ABC Family has ordered a fourth season of Pretty Little Liars.

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The cable network has picked up 24 more hourlong episodes of its buzziest teen soap, ABC Family president Michael Riley announced Thursday. Season four will debut in mid-2013.

Pretty Little Liars' renewal isn't much of a surprise as the mystery drama, starring Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, Ashley Benson and Troian Bellisario, ranks as ABC Family's top series of all time. The show was cable television's No. 1 series of the summer in several demos, including women 18-34 (1.2 million), female teens (1 million), viewers 12-34 (2.6 million) and females 12-34 (2.2 million).

In-season, the show dominates social media; the season-three summer finale Aug. 28 generated more than 700,000 tweets.

The news comes as Pretty Little Liars prepares to debut its second Halloween episode 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23 as part of the network's annual "13 Nights of Halloween" programming and the final two installments of web series Pretty Dirty Secrets.

The second half of season three kicks off in January.

Executive producers Oliver Goldstick and Marlene King were named as part of THR's annual top 50 showrunners list.

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com