Nickelodeon has a hit on their hands in iCarly and they have no intention of letting it go. Starring Miranda Cosgrove, the TV series attracted 7.4 million viewers last Saturday. That made it the most-watched cable program of the week and the most-watched kids cable show so far this year. Nickelodeon has just renewed iCarly for a fifth season of 13 episodes.

Created by Dan Schneider, iCarly revolves around Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove), a teenage girl who lives with her older brother, Spencer (Jerry Trainor). In the loft upstairs, Carly and her three best friends — Sam (Jennette McCurdy), Freddie (Nathan Kress) and Gibby (Noah Munck) — create an inventive and popular webcast for kids their own age, complete with comedy sketches, interviews, and advice.

Of the renewal, Marjorie Cohn, Nickelodeon’s President of Original Programming and Development, said, “Our audience will be psyched to get more of what they love — new episodes of their favorite show, iCarly. We are excited to see what Dan Schneider will do next with our favorite characters.”

Despite the big success of the show, one has to wonder if season five will be the end. The previous seasons have all been made up of 20-26 episodes each. Nickelodeon has only ordered 13 installments for season five.

Production on the next round of episodes will begin in May with season five expected to be shot in 2012.

What do you think? Are you a fan of iCarly? Glad to hear it’s been renewed? How long do you think it should realistically continue before the “kids” get too big?

Image courtesy Nickelodeon.