'Futurama' revived by Comedy Central

Futurama will return to TV screens next year, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Comedy Central has ordered a 26-episode two-season run for the animated show, which ran on Fox from 1999 to 2003. Four feature-length episodes were produced and their success on DVD has prompted Comedy Central, the rights owners since 2006, to produce a new batch of episodes.

"There is nothing like new, self-contained episodes week to week," said Comedy Central's David Bernath. "This is all about reinvigorating the franchise, giving it a new burst of energy."

The Simpsons's Matt Groening, who co-created Futurama with David X. Cohen, admitted that the specials were "a great way of keeping the show alive", adding: "One of the great things was that everyone enjoyed doing them, so it's been relatively easy trying to get everyone who was originally on the show to come back."

Groening and Cohen are currently working on new storylines for the animated sci-fi show, which is scheduled to premiere on Comedy Central in mid-2010.