The ultimate goal of for fans of the canceled Fox animated favorite Futurama, much like it was with Family Guy and still is for Firefly, was for the network to realize just how many passionate fans there still were out there, forcing them to give the show a second chance. Eventually this passion and perseverance paid off with four direct-to-DVD movies to test the waters (something they should try with Firefly) and the announcement that 26 brand new episodes would be airing on Comedy Central. 13 of these episodes have already run, bringing in around 2 million viewers per episode, and the second wave of that initial renewal is set to debut in June.

With over 10 million fans on Facebook, the worry was that not nearly as many fans were watching the show as there should be and naturally there was fear that these final 13 episodes would be the last we ever saw of Futurama. But now we can chalk that off to paranoia — it’s been announced that 26 MORE episodes have been ordered, keeping fans of the show set until 2013.

Much like the decision to split the first 26 episodes in half, this new order will get the same treatment. And with the run taking us to 2013 this does mean there will be some painfully long waits in between each chunk, but the most important thing is we now have 39 more new episodes of Futurama on the way, and that’s just a testament to what passionate fans of something great can do when they let their voices be heard.

Huzzah!

[Source: EW]