The Fae will stay for another season – Showcase announced Friday that Canadian supernatural drama Lost Girl will return for a third, 13-ep season.

“At the moment our budget allows for 13 [episodes], and we’ll review that again in probably February or March,” Christine Shipton, VP of original content at Shaw Media, tells Playback Daily.

She adds that the renewal is a “no-brainer,” considering, she says, that Lost Girl is the top show of all of Showcase’s U.S, Canadian and British drama series.

Shipton says the renewal announcement at this time is strategic – and seasonal.

Season two, for which Showcase ordered up 22 episodes, wraps shooting on Jan. 20, and she says it was important for the crew to know that they would be staying on after the wrap date.

“On a practical level, our community is getting incredibly competitive, and full,” she says. “So it was very important to us to keep all those key people. They’ve been doing a fabulous job.”

“We thought it was a really great Christmas present to give the crew today,” she adds.

The Canadian original series drew more than 700,000 viewers per week on average in its first season, which launched in September 2010, and was the top-ranked show on Showcase for adults 25 to 54. The second season has averaged close to 400,000 viewers (2+) per week to date.

Lost Girl follows succubus Bo, played by Anna Silk (Being Erica, Billable Hours), as she learns about her origins in the Fae world. The second season sees Bo struggling with her morals, while also struggling against a force that threatens the Fae existence.

The series is produced by Prodigy Pictures in association with Shaw Media.

Season three is slated to begin production in spring 2012.