HBO renews 'Boardwalk' for third season

'Boardwalk Empire' HBO has renewed "Boardwalk Empire" for a third season.Second season premiered Sept. 25, with 2.9 million viewers coming aboard for its original 9 p.m. airing. When adding two more additional plays that night, "Boardwalk" drew 4.5 million viewers -- down 37% from the series debut a year ago. For its pilot episode in 2010, "Boardwalk" drew 4.8 million viewers for the first showing and 7.1 million over the course of the evening. Series, which examines Prohibition-era Atlantic City, performed well at the recent Emmy Awards, specifically at the Creative Arts Emmys. All together, the skein won eight statuettesHBO invested millions in creating the set for "Boardwalk" a year ago and will receive a better return on their investment the longer the show runs on the air.Ensemble stars Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald and Michael Pitt. Exec producers are Terence Winter, Martin Scorsese, Tim Van Patten, Stephen Levinson and Mark Wahlberg.Pay cabler recently launched new comedy "Enlightened" and has laffers "Veep," with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and "Girls" on deck. On the drama side, net is planning a 2012 release of David Milch's "Luck" and has the new Aaron Sorkin show -- about the backstage goings-on at a cable news network -- in the wings. Contact Stuart Levine at stuart.levine@variety.com