HBO has officially announced a third-season pickup of Lena Dunham’s comedy Girls, which has received a 12-episode order, up from 10 for the first two seasons. HBO has been making preparations for a third season of Girls for the last couple of months. The network closed a new overall deal with executive producer Jenni Konner to return as co-showrunner alongside creator/star/executive producer Dunham. The duo, who executive produce Girls with Judd Apatow, have assembled a writing team, with Paul Simms replacing Bruce Eric Kaplan as co-executive producer as Kaplan is busy working on his HBO pilot. (He remains involved with Girls). The writers have already been working on scripts for Season 3 in anticipation of a pickup. Dunham inadvertently confirmed the renewal on Alec Baldwin’s podcast earlier this week. Season 3 of Girls is expected to film on the stage used by Baldwin’s departing 30 Rock at Silvercup Studios.

On the same night it won Golden Globes for best comedy series and best comedy actress (Dunham) earlier this month, Girls opened its second season to 866,000 viewers, down slightly from its series premiere last year. The premiere episode of the second season has since exceeded a gross audience of 3.8 million viewers.