Astrid (Jasika Nicole) and Walter (John Noble).

UPDATE: According to Hitfix, the third season is go!

EW.com is reporting J.J Abrams’ sci-fi drama ‘Fringe’ has been picked up for a third season by Fox.

Since its move to the brutal Thursday timeslot the ratings have taken a hit but the sci-fi drama has performed well against repeats and with timeshifted viewers.

And in a further vote of confidence, when queried about the future of scripted programming on Thursdays, Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment at Fox, told The Hollywood Reporter:

“Yes, absolutely. I’m really looking at the back half of the year when we’ll bring the combo back on again. “Bones” hit highs in January. People haven’t abandoned “Fringe”; it’s just the only scripted four-way race, and frankly we’ve heard from fans it’s not they don’t want to watch it anymore, it just may have moved to their second choice; they’re picking it up on their DVRs or Hulu. When there’s wiggle room in time period, they come back.”

Source: Entertainment Weekly