ABC Family has announced that they’ve renewed their highly-rated show, Pretty Little Liars, for a fourth season of 24 episodes. It’s expected to begin airing mid-2013.

Fans won’t have to wait that long to see the young ladies again however. A special Halloween episode is slated to air in a couple weeks, on Tuesday, October 23rd. On top of that, the remaining 11 episodes of season three are expected to start airing in January 2013.

Here’s the press release:

ABC FAMILY DIGS UP MORE SECRETS AND LIES WITH A FOURTH SEASON PICK UP OF THEIR HIT ORIGINAL SERIES “PRETTY LITTLE LIARS”

Burbank, CA (Oct. 4, 2012) – Michael Riley, president ABC Family, announced today that the network has picked up a fourth 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 2013. “Pretty Little Liars” will air a special Halloween-themed episode on Tuesday, Oct. 23rd at 8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT, as part of the network’s “13 Nights of Halloween” programming event, and then will return with the rest of season three in January 2013.

ABC Family’s #1 series of all time, “Pretty Little Liars” ranked as cable TV’s #1 series of summer 2012 in viewers 12-34 (2.6 million/2.8 rating) and Females 12-34 (2.2 million/5.0 rating), the #1 scripted basic cable TV series in Women 18-34 (1.2 million/3.7 rating) and the #1 series in Female Teens (1.0 million/8.6 rating). In its time period, “Pretty Little Liars” was easily the #1 cable TV show on Tuesdays at 8 o’clock throughout the season across target 18-34, 1849 and 12-34 demos.

The August 28th finale exploded social media sites across America, breaking the show’s own previous records, generating more than 709,000 tweets, peaking at an impressive 36,000 tweets per minute. With an all-day catch-up marathon and finale, “Pretty Little Liars” generated 1.9 million tweets, including more than 1.2 million between 8:00 and 10:00 pm. Moreover, according to SocialGuide, “Pretty Little Liars became the #1 “most social” TV series episode in history, breaking records with over 1.6 million comments.

“Pretty Little Liars” fans have been able to fill the void left when the show went off the air in August with ABCFamily.com’s new webisode series “Pretty Dirty Secrets.” The webisode series has been a tremendous hit with fans, vastly exceeding any short-form video series ever done on ABCFamily.com. The debut alone garnered over half a million views in 24 hours.

In the special Halloween-themed episode, entitled “This Is a Dark Ride” and airs Tuesday, Oct. 23rd (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT), Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer are looking forward to some good old Halloween fun now that the traumatic events with Nate are behind them. But once aboard the Rosewood Ghost Train, the girls are in for much more than just some childish trick or treats. With “A” running amuck and unexpected party-goers popping up at every turn, this Halloween event becomes one killer party. Musical guest star Adam Lambert performs his songs “Trespassing” and “Cuckoo,” from his latest album “Trespassing,” during the Halloween festivities.

“Pretty Little Liars” is produced by Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television and is executive produced by I. Marlene King, Oliver Goldstick, Joseph Dougherty and Leslie Morgenstein. The series stars Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Tyler Blackburn, Holly Marie Combs, Lucy Hale, Ian Harding, Laura Leighton, Chad Lowe, Janel Parrish, 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. Emmy(R) Award-winning ABCFamily.com provides a variety of interactive entertainment and community features, from rich, fan-centric programming – including blogs, viewing parties, webisodes, full episodes of the network’s hit programming, along with sneak peek exclusive previews and behind-the-scenes clips. 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.

What do you think? Are you glad to hear that Pretty Little Liars has been renewed? How many seasons should this TV series run?