Castle is not taking an extended winter hiatus after all, according to ABC this week.

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The murder mystery series, featuring Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle and Stana Katic as Kate Beckett, is taking a hiatus during the month of December and will return in early January. ABC released their winter schedule this week revealing the 2016 premiere date of Castle to be Monday, Jan. 4.

This is a change from what had been reported in September by TVLine, which had wrote that the show would take an extended hiatus until February. It would have been the first time ABC did not air any episodes of Castle in January since season 2.

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It is not known why ABC chose to bump Castle up to January, or if they had even planned on waiting until February at all.

Castle has received a lot of controversy this season over the decision to split up Castle and Beckett at the end of the second episode. Beckett wished to separate herself from Castle in order to protect him while she pursued the LokSat / Bracken (Jack Coleman) case.

However, they are finally showing signs of potentially getting back together soon. The couple chose to commemorate their one-year wedding anniversary by having sex in Monday night's episode.

Next week is the 2015 finale of Castle, an episode intriguingly titled Mr. and Mrs. Castle. Will these two crazy kids finally get together again? Only time will tell. But if they don't, at least fans don't have to wait so long for the show to return.

Castle airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Tags: Castle television ABC