Michael Riley, president ABC Family, announced today that the network has picked up a third season of its hit original series “Pretty Little Liars.” The all new season will consist of 24 one-hour episodes that will start to air mid 2012. “Pretty Little Liars” is set to return on ABC Family with the rest of season two on Monday, January 2nd at 8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT.

Since “Pretty Little Liars” premiered on ABC Family in June 2010, the show has been a ratings success and is currently ABC Family’s top rated original series among P12-34 and F12-34. “Pretty Little Liars” was the #1 scripted original series on cable this summer among P12-34 and F12-34, and led its Tuesday 8-9 PM hour, ranking #1 across key persons and female targets versus all basic cable nets (18-34, 18-49 and 12-34).

In the January premiere of “Pretty Little Liars” entitled “Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares,” airing Monday, January 2nd (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT), it picks up a month later in the town of Rosewood after the four Liars were caught by police and a lot has changed in Rosewood and with the girls. No longer the mighty four best friends, the Liars are at each others’ throats and Emily has been iced out completely. But what could have divided them so severely? Has “A” finally won the game of divide and conquer? With Emily now truly on her own, is she ripe for “A’s” picking?

“Pretty Little Liars” is produced by Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television and is executive produced by I. Marlene King, Oliver Goldstick and Leslie Morgenstein. The series stars Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Holly Marie Combs, Lucy Hale, Ian Harding, Laura Leighton, Chad Lowe, Shay Mitchell and Sasha Pieterse.

Part of the Disney/ABC Television Group, ABC Family is distributed in over 97 million homes. ABC Family features programming reflecting today’s families, entertaining and connecting with adults through relatable programming about today’s relationships – told with a mix of diversity, passion, humor and heart. ABC Family’s programming is a combination of network defining original series and original movies, quality acquired series and blockbuster theatricals. ABC Family is also the destination for annual Holiday events with “13 Nights of Halloween” and “25 Days of Christmas.” ABC Family. A New Kind of Family.

This summer, the girls of Pretty Little Liars are teaming up with Staples and DoSomething.org to host their fourth annual Staples for Students School Supply Drive – a campaign mobilizing young people to collect school supplies for the 13 million kids who will return to school without basic supplies. Check out the video where the girls share what their favorite school supplies and visit StaplesForStudents.org to see how you can help!!

EXTERNAL LINKS:
Site > StaplesforStudents.org

Is Emily moving to Texas? What will Spencer tell her big sis about Ian’s antics? We’re in Burbank, Ca. with Shay Mitchell and Troian Bellisario to get the latest on the new season of “Pretty Little Liars” starting on June 14 on ABC Family.

TeenTelevision: Tell us what you can tell us without getting in trouble with your bosses. We know we pick up with where last season left off and we’re wondering about Ian’s fate. What else?
Shay: Yes. I guess the big thing is just finding out what really happened to Ian. Is it he dead? Is he alive? And, if so, how did he manage that?

TeenTelevision: We know a therapist is coming into the mix so are the girls going to maybe clash over what to tell he and maybe to reveal anything to her?
Troian: Definitely. I think when you’ve all shared a traumatic experience but you all have very different opinions on where you stand, how far you are into wanting to let it go or wanting to rehash it? Doing something like therapy together is a really stifling experience. And especially because the girls have so much to lose and so many secrets with each other. They have to work through that. Or decide if they’re going to let that go.

TeenTelevision: What sort of new things are happening for each of your characters?
Shay: I would say that Emily is moving. She’s packing up. I think, with her, it’s always been divide and conquer. She’s kind of wanting to separate the girls and give them alone time to kind of mess with them individually. So they don’t have their group of girls to fall back on for a little bit. So, where is she going? Is it Texas? I don’t know. I do know but I can’t say but she’ll be connected even if she moves. “A” still wants her in the game.

Shay is scheduled to attend and present on stage at this year’s Much Music Video Awards on June 19, 2011.

Other presenters include The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki, Pretty Little Liars’ Shay Mitchell, east coast rapper Classified, pop-rockers Marianas Trench, power-pop band These Kids Wear Crowns, Toronto pop-R&B artist Shawn Desman, Australian pop star Cody Simpson, party rock duo LMFAO, and singer/SYTYCDC judge Blake McGrath.

“Ezria” fans, avert your pretty little peepers: Pretty Little Liars executive producer Oliver Goldstick tells me that the ABC Family drama’s Monday-night finale is a game-changer in every sense of the word, starting with a major shift in Mr. Fitz’ future at Rosewood High School. “Next season, we’re putting Ezra in a new place,” Goldstick reveals. “Mr. Fitz may be leaving Rosewood High, and we hint at that in Monday’s finale. It will definitely put ‘Ezria’s’ relationship in a new context.” Just to ease your minds, this does not mean the adorable Ian Harding is leaving PLL. Or even that Ezra and Aria are over. Rather, Mr. Fitz eventually swapping jobs could actually mean good things for the undercover couple.

“Ian’s very much a part of our series and part of the second season,” says Goldstick. “He’s very pivotal and does not go away. We’re going to play it very much as a relationship that has many obstacles — the teacher/student element may be lifted, and other [problems] present themselves next season.” If you remember, last week’s PLL ended with the cops heading to Ezra’s apartment to discuss a matter relating to one of his students. While I can’t reveal the exact nature of the visit, I will say that it’s not what it seems.

What else can you expect from the Pretty Little Liars finale? The real question is what can’t you expect:

Finale Fodder | The liars are in for a rude awakening by the end of Monday’s episode, Goldstick reveals: “A lot of threads that have been woven into the fabric of this season create a picture, a really startling picture. It doesn’t answer every question, just some, and the final scene raises more questions. It’s really titillating.” The showrunner won’t spoil much, but says that whatever happens in the finale “certainly puts our four girls in a position that Toby was in for some time, as far as a cloud hanging over him in Rosewood. It makes their relationship that much more fraught because they’re all pariahs in Rosewood when we start the second season. All of the girls are in trouble.”

Emily & Maya | Guess what, Maya fans? Bianca Lawson will also be returning to PLL. “Maya went off because we had to shake it up a little bit,” Goldstick explains. “We all thought it was interesting to see what would happen if when Maya went away, Emily was put in the position where she was the one who became the teacher in the relationship. The Emily/Maya relationship had played itself out at that point and we wanted to give new drama and a new path for Emily. But there are plans for her to return. We adore her.”

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PRETTY LITTLE LIARS wrapped up its first season on ABC Family last night and with the show committed to a Season 2 (and possibly more), we caught up with showrunner and executive producer Marlene King to get the scoop on what to expect from Season 2 and beyond.

Here’s what she had to say in this exclusive interview:

ASSIGNMENT X: When a show gets an early renewal like PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, does that help in building to a more satisfying end of the current season?

MARLENE KING: We planned in our minds for the show to run four or five years and Season 1 was setting up the thought that this mystery would go on for numerous years. So [the renewal] affects us, in that we kind of knew the broad strokes of Season 2 when we started Season 1. What’s going to be interesting about Season 2 – it’s going to be two cycles of 12, instead of a 10 and 12. So we get to set up the mysteries with two premieres and two finales every year. It really is like two mini-seasons. It’s fun for us, because if we didn’t have that big break like ABC Family does, you would have to tell that story over those 24 episodes. Instead we get to do a mini-mystery in Cycle 1 and a mystery in Cycle 2. That’s fun for us.

AX: When will the next season start?

KING: Season 2 will start this summer. The Pretty Little Liars are like pariahs in the town of Rosewood, so the they’re going to be more globally known within their world.

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Spring Finale of ABC Family Critical Darling “Pretty Little Liars” is the Series’ 2nd-Most-Watched Telecast Ever in Total Viewers and All Key Demos Sweeps Cable’s No. 1 Rank on Monday’s at 8 O’Clock Across All Key Demos; Is Monday Night’s No. 1 Cable Show in Key Females for the 9th Consecutive Week Stands as Cable’s No. 1 Scripted Series in Females 12-34, and the No. 2 Scripted Series Across All Cable Among Women 18-34 for the 2010/11 Season to Date,

Surges by Huge Double-Digit Percent Margins Season 1B Versus Season 1A

GLAAD Media Award nominees and honorees will be present to receive their awards at the Annual GLAAD Media Awards presented by ROKK Vodka at The Westin Bonaventure Hotel on April 10, 2011. Additional awards will be presented in New York on March 19 at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, and will be presented in San Francisco at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis on Saturday, May 14.
Shay is listed on their site as special guest so she’s attending! We can’t wait to see what she will wear!

The Secret’s Out for Teen Choice Summer TV Award Winner with PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON. Contains All 22 Episodes of the First Season, Plus Never-Before-Seen Bonus Features! The DVD Debuts June 7, 2011, In Time for the Season Two Premiere This Summer on ABC Family!

BURBANK, CA (February 17, 2011) – One of basic cable’s top-rated shows of all time with Tweens and Teens makes its DVD debut on June 7 with Pretty Little Liars: The Complete First Season, from Warner Home Video. Pretty Little Liars (Mondays 8/7c on ABC Family) stars Troian Bellisario (JAG), Ashley Benson (Eastwick), Holly Marie Combs (Charmed), Lucy Hale (Privileged), Ian Harding (NCIS: Los Angeles), Bianca Lawson (The Vampire Diaries), Laura Leighton (Melrose Place), Chad Lowe (24, ER), Shay Mitchell (Rookie Blue) and Sasha Pieterse (Without a Trace). The five-disc set contains all 22 episodes of the first season, plus never-before-seen bonus features, including three never-before-seen featurettes and deleted scenes. Pretty Little Liars: The Complete First Season is priced to own at $59.98 SRP.

DVD BONUS FEATURES:

• Pretty Little Liars: Two Truths and a Lie – Discover some fun facts and fictional fallacies about the cast of Pretty Little Liars
• It All Started with a Little Lie: Making Pretty Little Liars – Discover how the pages and characters of Sara Shepard’s novel became this can’t miss TV series
• Little Secrets from the Set – Catch up with the cast and crew of summer’s hottest show as they bring us several juicy behind-the-scenes secrets from the Pretty Little Liars set
• Deleted Scenes

You thought high school was hard? Try walking in the flip-flops of Pretty Little Liars’ Emily Fields for a day. Shay Mitchell’s gay character has had more than her share of dramz: Since her best friend’s murder, she’s been terrorized by the mysterious “A” and come out as a lesbian—and, thanks to her horrified parents, her girlfriend was shipped of to some kind of sobriety camp. Emily proved she could stand up to a Swimfan-style bully at school, but what about her anonymous tormentor, A? Shay gave us the scoop…

Emily has transformed from a shy, confused girl to a badass babe, and Shay couldn’t be happier. “From the beginning of season one we saw that Emily is dealing with her sexuality and over the season she has come out to her parents, which I think is amazing,” Shay told us. “And you see how other people are accepting it. With [these latest] episodes there is a little bit of [anti-gay] bullying. I think it was important for the writers to put that in there, but it’s [also] fun. [Emily's]‘s going to have a good time [standing up for herself].”

Shay says she has received “feedback from people from all around the world” about her character’s sexuality. “Young girls and guys just come up to me on the street and say things like, ‘Thank you, I related to your character unlike any other, especially when she was first discovering who she was and then come out to her dad—it gave me courage and strength to come out to my parents.’ That’s amazing, I couldn’t imagine playing a better character. I am very fortunate.”

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