Drop Dead Diva Gets A Fourth Season

I’ll admit it, when I first saw the ads for Drop Dead Diva I thought it was silly and doomed. The supernatural, fantastically cheesy premise of a shallow beauty who dies and is sent back in the body of a plus-size lawyer struck me as a mildly inventive take on Freaky Friday that couldn’t possibly survive more than a season or two. I stand very corrected.

Fans of the show can rejoice: Deadline has dropped the word that Lifetime has renewed the popular series for a fourth season. The series has carried solid ratings, averaging 2.2 million viewers with Lifetime’s largely female audience through three seasons; the third season will end this coming Sunday. The network has already ordered 13 episodes for next year.

It will be another year of redeeming model Deb Dobkins’ life as a shallow model who, upon reached her untimely end, was declared to have been neither particularly good or particularly bad. She managed to secure herself a second chance and went right on back to earth to hop into the body and life of hardworking lawyer Jane Bingum who has also met an untimely end.

So in spite of a premise that made me roll my eyes just a little when it first appeared, Drop Dead Diva is in no way ready for the grave; thanks are probably due to the wit and humor that are part of the writing for the series and the likable Brooke Elliot as the model-turned-undead-lawyer. This series if proof that even an idea that sounds downright silly can become a winner when done correctly.