HBO’s ‘Ballers’ gets renewed for fourth season

Spencer Strasmore and company will be back on HBO next summer.

The network announced Tuesday that Ballers, the hit show about a sports agent played by Dwyane Johnson, has been renewed for a fourth season. Ballers has become popular among sports fans thanks to its football-centric plot lines and cameos from stars like Antonio Brown, Victor Cruz, Jason Taylor, Ndamukong Suh, Wes Welker, Steph Curry and many others.

Ballers has gotten lukewarm reviews for most of its run, with critics suggesting it was high on drugs, nudity and The Rock but light on substance and quality acting, but the show has taken a more serious turn lately. Our Ben Koo wrote last month that after largely rolling his eyes at the first two seasons, he enjoyed the first four episodes of the newest season.

But after these first few hurdles of “this is absolutely ridiculous,” it was pretty smooth sailing the next two episodes. In fact, dare I say it — it was kind of good. Like I was bummed when the fourth episode ended and I was out of episodes. It’s going to be late August before anything new happens on the show for me, and I’m jonesing for a fix of Ballers, and this is equally surprising, exciting, and depressing. l’m like Jerry finally admitting he watches Melrose Place.

Each of Ballers’ three seasons so far have been 10 episodes, which is standard for HBO shows.

According to TV By the Numbers, Ballers has seen its ratings double this season, with an average of 2.45 million viewers, thanks in large part to a huge lead-in from Game of Thrones.

HBO also announced it had renewed acclaimed drama Insecure, created by and starring Issa Rae.

“We’re thrilled that the summer lineup of Ballers and Insecure connected with our viewers out of the gate,” HBO executive Amy Gravitt said in a statement. “We’re so proud to work with Dwayne, Issa and all of the amazing talent in both shows.”