SundanceTV said it has ordered a fourth season of critically praised drama Rectify, just ahead of the series season premiere Thursday (July 9) at 10 p.m. The fourth season will premiere sometime in 2016, the network said, and an exact episode count for the new season has yet to be determined.

“Even in an increasingly crowded field of dramas on television, Rectify has established itself as something special,” Charlie Collier, president of AMC and SundanceTV, said in a release. “What Ray McKinnon, this incredible cast and everyone associated with the show have been able to achieve is remarkable, and we are so pleased to usher in this third season with an order for a fourth. Rectify has had such a huge impact in establishing SundanceTV as a home for high-quality, intelligent drama. We are excited to continue this important partnership with Ray and the entire team.”

Rectify, which recently won a Peabody Award, is about a man, Daniel Holden (Aden Young, pictured), a convicted murderer who is released from prison on DNA evidence after serving 19 years on death row and his attempts to adjust to "normal" life in his Georgia hometown. 

An AMC recap: Season three of the hour-long drama picks up where season two left off, on the afternoon of Daniel’s plea deal. Will the deal be accepted? Will Daniel be forced to leave town? And when the body of a missing person is discovered, law enforcement once again turns to him for answers. As Daniel's sister Amantha (Abigail Spencer) attempts to live her own life, she is given an opportunity at a local store that for the first time in a long time has nothing to do with her brother. Meanwhile, Tawney (Adelaide Clemens) and Ted Jr. (Clayne Crawford) struggle to see if their marriage has a future. Janet (J. Smith Cameron) and Ted Sr. (Bruce McKinnon), also under pressure from Daniel’s actions, will find that their marriage is put to the test as well.

Rectify was created and written by Writers Guild Award-nominated Ray McKinnon, who executive produces, along with Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein.

This post-July-4 week has been a big one for cable-network series renewals, including ones at Comedy Central (South Park), Cartoon Network (Adventure Time and four other series), USA Network (Chrisley Knows Best), Lifetime (UnREAL) and Oxygen (The Prancing Elites Project). 

Peabody Award-winning entertainment shows this time around include political drama (The Honorable Woman), incisive sketch comedy (Inside Amy Schumer, pictured) and a clever telenovela about a household with three generations of Latina women (Jane The Virgin).

Entertainment programs picked forthe 74th Peabody Awards at the University of Georgia came out this morning. News and radio winners come out on Monday, April 20, on the Peabody website, www.peabodyawards.com. Documentary, public service, education and children’s programming winners come out on Thursday, April 23. 

Entertainment winners, as described by the Peabody announcement, are:

Winners will receive their awards on Sunday, May 31, at the first-ever nighttime, red-carpet Peabody ceremony. Peabody winner Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live and Portlandia) will host the gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. Pivot TV will air a 90-minute Peabody special on June 21.

The Americans (FX), Fox Television Studios and FX Productions: "In this ingenious, addictive cliffhanger, Reagan-era Soviet spies – married with children and a seemingly endless supply of wigs -- operate out of a lovely 3BR home in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Between their nail-biter missions (and sometimes in the midst of them), the series contemplates duty, honor, parental responsibility, fidelity, both nationalistic and marital, and what it means to be an American."

Black Mirror (Channel 4), Zeppotron/Channel 4: "This cinematically arresting, brilliantly written series from England is an anthology of dark-side tales – dark as a black hole. If its narrative shocks don’t wreck your sleep pattern, its moral conundrums will."

Fargo (FX), MGM and FX Productions: "Fargo, the series, boasts the same snow-swept backdrop and dark, deadpan ambience as the Oscar-winning movie but tells a different, more complicated story. Its villain, Billy Bob Thornton’s mischievous, murderous, charismatic Lorne Malvo, is a character worthy of Norse mythology."

The Honorable Woman (Sundance TV), BBC Worldwide, Drama Republic, Eight Rooks Productions, Sundance Channel: "A visually rich, densely-plotted thriller set against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, it suggests complexities and age-old vendettas that often escape even the best documentaries, to say nothing of the evening news."

Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central), Jax Media LLC: "Schumer’s wholesome, disarming Brady Bunch looks belie and enhance a comic intelligence that’s smart, distinctively female and amiably profane, whether she’s applying it to sketch comedy, stand-up, or person-on-the-street interviews."

Jane the Virgin (The CW), Eye Productions Inc., CBS Television Studios Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Electus; RCTV; Poppy Productions: "Immaculately conceived, it’s a smart, self-aware telenovela that knows when and how to wink at itself. Its Latina lead, Gina Rodriguez, is incandescent."

The Knick (Cinemax), Cinemax Entertainment in association with Ambeg Productions, Anonymous Content and Extension 765: "Graphic, gripping, unapologetically grisly when it has to be, this lavish historical drama masterfully dissects surgical experimentation, doctors’ egos, race relations and socials mores in the New York City of 100 years ago. It gives new meaning to the term 'operating theater.' ”

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), HBO Entertainment in association with Sixteen String Jack Productions and Avalon Television: "A most worthy addition to the news-as-comedy genre, Last Week Tonight doesn’t just satirize the previous week’s news, it engages in fresh, feisty investigative reports that 'real' news programs would do well to emulate."

Rectify (Sundance TV), Gran Via Productions, Zip Works: "A powerful, subtle dramatic series about a death-row inmate freed after nearly two decades thanks to new DNA evidence, it ponders whether what’s been lost can ever be repaid, not just to him but to everyone he and his alleged crimes touched."

SundanceTV’s drama series Rectify returns tonight with the premiere of its second season – this time with one of the show’s writers posting additional online content for each episode, written from the perspective of a supporting character, Jared Talbot, played on the show by Jake Austin Walker (pictured).

The series continues following the story of Daniel Holden (Aden Young), a man whose murder conviction is overturned by retrospective DNA evidence and is released from prison after 19 years on death row.

Rectify script supervisor Kate Powers’s posts, published on Sundance.tv under the title “Jared’s Blog,” will consist of blog entries as well as high school homework assignments written in the character’s voice. Each post will also offer deeper insight and analysis as to the emotional impact of a family readjusting to the presence of a relative they previously believed would be imprisoned for life.

This approach to creating digital content offers Rectify fans the ability to delve deeper into the emotions of the storyline, providing an additional first-person voice to digest outside the series’ norm, the network says.

The first post for “Jared’s Blog” was slated to go live at 6 p.m. tonight, three hours prior to the season two premiere. Future entries will also correspond with the airing of new episodes.