The cable network gives extends the series halfway through its freshman season

Syfy is staying put in Z Nation. The cable network has announced a second season of the zombie drama, set for 2015.

The news comes just halfway through the series' freshman season. It's proven to be especially competitive on Friday nights, averaging just under 1.5 million viewers and a 0.5 rating among adults 18-49 in live-plus-same-day showings.

Z Nation comes to Syfy from producers The Asylum, the studio behind many of its popular B-movies that also run on Friday nights — including the Sharknado franchise.

Syfy has been loading up on original dramas of late. It has renewed Dominion, Defiance and Helix, and is filling the cupboard with 13 episodes of Gale Anne Hurd drama Hunters and the long-gestating miniseries based on Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.

Z Nation, the network's response to the popularity of The Walking Dead, stars Harold Perrineau and Tom Everett Scott. It takes place in the U.S., three years after the country was ravaged by zombies.