After 3 'Sherlock'-less years, Season 4 finally gets premiere date

Buck up Sherlock fans! After three long, Sherlock-less years, season 4's premiere episode called 'The Six Thatchers' is set to premiere in US and UK on January 1, 2017, reports E! Online.

The beloved British-American crime drama television series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Sherlock Holmes' detective stories, is returning to Masterpiece, three years after we last got a proper season of the production.

"Sherlock series four-here we go again! Whatever else we do, wherever we all go, all roads lead back to Baker Street, and it always feels like coming home," showrunner Steven Moffat said in a statement when production on season four began in April.

"Ghosts of the past are rising in the lives of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and terror and tragedy are looming. This is the story we've been telling from the beginning and it's about to reach its climax.", he said.

Although the show has yet to make an official announcement regarding the future of the program, the skyrocketing celebrity status of both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman should not mean that this could be the last season of the show.

"I don't know how long we can keep it going. I'm personally willing but I'm hardly the main draw," the show creator Steven Moffat said in a statement.

"I would be moderately surprised if this was the last time we ever made this show. But it absolutely could be," he added.

Conan Doyle's story about a dying detective titled 'The Lying Detective' is believed to be one of the stories the fourth season will be based on.