‘The Newsroom’ will get third and final season on HBO

Aaron Sorkin’s cable news drama “The Newsroom” will be back for a third and final season.

HBO announced production on the final season would begin this spring with plans for a fall debut.

Jeff Daniels stars in the series as outspoken cable news anchor Will McAvoy, who puts together the program “News Night” with his production staff, including Emily Mortimer as the executive producer. Daniels won an Emmy for best actor in a drama series last September.

In a statement, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said: “‘The Newsroom’ is classic Aaron Sorkin -- smart, riveting and thought-provoking. I’m sure this farewell season will be one to remember.”

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Sorkin’s much heralded return to series TV faced mixed reviews during its first season, but was seen to have improved a bit in its second season. One of the main criticisms leveled against the show was its decision to have the series use real-life news events as the topics of its show, as opposed to thinly-veiled fictions. However, Sorkin has said in interviews that it was the choice to use real-life news events that made the series seem workable for him.

In 2012, Sorkin told NPR: “I know that this device has bothered some people who think that I’m leveraging hindsight into a way to make my characters stronger. That wasn’t the idea.”

One interesting behind-the-scenes change to note is that Paul Lieberstein, better known as Toby the hapless HR guy from “The Office,” will be joining the show as an executive producer. Lieberstein also was a writer on “The Office.”

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