Comedy Central has renewed comedian Chris Hardwick’s late-night series “@midnight” for a fourth season, the cable channel announced Friday. The 40-week renewal extends the show through 2017.

Hosted by Hardwick, “@midnight” has been one of Comedy Central’s most successful efforts at integrating digital and social media into a linear television show. The series’ #HashtagWars segment has become a regular driver of top trending topics on Twitter.

In August, Comedy Central moved “@midnight” from its regular midnight timeslot to 11:30 p.m. weeknights on a temporary basis following the cancelation of “The Nightly Show.” Network executives are believed to be open to keeping “@midnight” in the timeslot immediately following “The Daily Show,” but are also exploring other programming options that would push the Hardwick talker back to the later time period.

A decision about a permanent 11:30 p.m. occupant is not expected until after the new year.

“We are really pleased with how Chris and team have opened the aperture of ‘@midnight’ to cover more of the socially and politically relevant topics of the day, and I defy anyone to find a show with a higher joke-per-minute ratio,” said Comedy Central president Kent Alterman.

In September, “@midnight” won its second consecutive Creative Arts Emmy for outstanding creative achievement in interactive media social TV experience.

“I LOVE making ‘@midnight’ and we will continue to innovate inappropriate jokes about social media and pop culture in the late-night landscape,” said Hardwick. “I’m proud to get to work with this amazing team for another year, and hopefully beyond!”