Less than a week after a steady start to its second season, Fear The Walking Dead has been picked up for a third season by AMC. The 16-episode run of the Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson created spinofff of blockbuster The Walking Dead will debut in 2017, the cabler said Friday.

“What Dave Erickson and Robert Kirkman have invented in Fear The Walking Dead is to be applauded,” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios today. “Watching Los Angeles crumble through the eyes of our characters and seeing each make decisions and try to figure out the rules of their new world – it’s fresh, eerie and compelling and we’re all in for the ride.”

Now on the high seas, FearTWD returned on April 10 for a 15-episode S2 run basically even in Live + Same Day numbers with its October 4 S1 finale of last year. While down 37% in the key 18-49 demo from the record-breaking cable highs of its August 23, 2015 Season 1 premiere FearTWD S2’s opener also declined 34% in total viewers from its very first show.

However, even with those declines, the spinoff is still the second highest rated show on cable this season in the 18-49s – behind only TWD itself. On both broadcast and cable, FearTWD is the seventh highest rated show, including Sunday Night Football, this season so far.

In just released Live + 3 numbers, FearTWD’s S2 opener rose 32% in total viewers from its L+SD results to 8.8 million. Among adults 18-49, the Erickson written ‘Monster” ep was up 36% from L+SD to 5.3 million.