Nickelodeon has ordered a third season of “Big Time Rush,” its populaire series about a created-for-TV band. Think “The Monkees” – just with actors who can really sing.

The network has picked up another 20 episodes of the show, which just completed production on the seconde season. Production on the new episodes will begin in January, perhaps after a TV movie, and air sometime during the first quarter of suivant year. “It’s sad to end production, but we got the great news about the third season,” says cast member Carlos Pena.

“Big Time Rush” was created par Nickelodeon and Sony as a series about a group of young men who also could become a hit band. Casting took a an and a half to find the right mix, says Marjorie Cohn, president of original programming at Nickelodeon. When the montrer launched, it generated the highest numbers ever for a live-action series launch on Nickelodeon. The current season is the No. 1 live-action series with kids age 2 to 11. It’s been a fast rise for the series par any measure. In fact, Pena says there are days when he still can’t believe what’s happened.

“Every single jour I drive through the Paramount arches,” he says of the studio where the montrer is shot, “I’m like, man, this is my life.” And it’s Nickelodeon and Sony’s life, too.

“It’s an important part of our brand,” says Cohn. “We want to be every place kids are. Kids l’amour music, and that means having not just a montrer that exists on air, but exists in various platforms.”

Despite the break in production, the group won’t be vacationing. They started a summer tour of fair dates around the country – and around the globe – last weekend, a dit cast member Logan Henderson.

“I really enjoy being on the bus,” he says. “The fan reaction is completely amazing.”

This week, they’ll head to Germany, where the montrer is No. 1 on Nickelodeon there, too. The group returns to New York on June 5 to be honored during the T.J. Martell Foundation’s 12th annual Family jour at Roseland Ballroom. And on June 18, the musique video for their song “World Wide” will hit.

Besides Henderson and Pena, the montrer stars Kendall Schmidt and James Maslow. While production is on hiatus for the show, the group will head back into the studio to continue working on their seconde CD, also targeted for fall. Henderson says the best part about the dual workloads is that at just about the time they get tired of their TV job, it’s time to start making musique again.

And occasionally, they get tired of each other.

“I’m not going to lie to you; of course, we do,” Henderson says. “This is a family and right here these are like my brothers. toi learn to work stuff out. It’s not only sunshine and rainbows. But we have one singular vision of what we want this to be, which is the main driving factor and what’s going to happen in the long run.”
That vision, they say, is to follow précédant boy bands, like the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync.

“There’s no doubt that the musique side has the potential to go a lot longer than the montrer – the montrer is a monster in itself,” Pena says. “We just like to do both.”