Almighty Johnsons to get third season

The Almighty Johnsons will return for a third season. Photo / Supplied

A last-minute reprieve has seen funding approved for a third season of The Almighty Johnsons.

NZ on Air today granted $6.9 million towards a third season of the TV3 drama show, created by Outrageous Fortune's James Griffin and Rachel Lang for South Pacific Pictures.

Earlier reports suggested that the show would be axed after a drop in ratings for its season two, including confirmation from the show's creator James Griffin who told nzherald.co.nz he was "gutted" that he wasn't given time to wrap up the show's loose ends.

A petition set up to campaign for a third season today had more than 3500 signatures.

NZ on Air confirmed the news with the tweet, "New series of The Almighty Johnsons and 7 Days and a variety of new and returning TV programming announced" and a link to this webpage.

The news was welcomed by Facebook fans of the show, with more than 1000 'likes' in the hour after the third season was announced. Filming is scheduled to begin later this year.

Other shows to receive funding in today's announcement include 26 new episodes of TV3 comedy 7 Days (at a cost of $760,000), eight episodes for a second season of First Crossings ($1,037,748) and 13 episodes of a new show by The Downlow Concept called The Best Bits ($385,280).

Almighty Johnsons follows a family of Norse gods living in New Zealand and features the actors Emmett Skilton, Tim Balme, Dean O'Gorman, Jared Turner and Ben Barrington.

- nzherald.co.nz