When Will 'Below Deck' Return for Season 3?

Our prayers were finally answered. After weeks of sleepless nights spent wondering whether Below Deck would be renewed for Season 3, Bravo finally announced that the show will set sail again. As was the case with Season 1, the news came right after the Season 3 finale, which is basically the only way I could survive knowing I would not be learning a new Kate witticism every week from now on. The big question now is when Below Deck Season 3 will premiere.

Though the show's ratings were slightly down in Season 2, this season of Below Deck ended on a high note with 1.4 million viewers, the highest ratings of the season, even if it was a bit of a snoozefest. Still, even a boring episode of Below Deck is a million times better than most reality shows out there today. Clearly, Bravo thinks so, too.

But knowing that Below Deck will return to our lives isn't enough. Now we need to know exactly when it's coming back. How else do you expect us to get through the day? Do you expect us to embrace carpe diem or some crap like that? Puh-lease.

Unfortunately, when Bravo announced the renewal of Below Deck, the network failed to mention a return date for the show. With no official announcement, we can't know for sure when new episodes of Below Deck will start up again.

But here's what we do know: Below Deck hasn't started filming yet. The show typically films for six weeks during the peak of charter season in January and February. So that means Bravo hasn't started filming yet on Season 3, which in turn means the show can't return to the network for a while. Below Deck is even casting charter guests right now for the third season if you've got some cash to burn.

Knowing all of that and the past history of Below Deck, it's likely that the show will return some time in the summer of 2015. Season 1 of the show premiered on July 1, 2013 and Season 2 premiered on Aug. 12, 2014. I think it's safe to say that the Season 3 premiere of Below Deck will follow this pattern, give or take a month.

So that wasn't exactly the news any of us wanted to hear. On the one hand, we have a pretty good feeling of when we can expect Below Deck Season 3 to premiere, but on the other hand, that's probably going to be about a year from now. Oh, the torture we endure for Captain Lee and company.

Images: Virginia Sherwood/Bravo; sidewindervx/Tumblr