All American season 6 episode count cut nearly in half

We knew All American season 6 would likely be the show’s shortest season, but we did not expect the episode count for season 6 to be as low as it will be.

As confirmed by Deadline, the upcoming sixth season of All American will consist of a mere 13 episodes with The CW basically slashing the show’s episode order in half. Due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike-related delays, The CW is cutting the show’s episode order by seven episodes(!) in season 6 which will make it the shortest season of the show ever.

In the early seasons of the show, The CW ordered 16 episodes per season but as the show’s popularity grew so did the show’s episode counts. Season 3 consisted of 19 episodes while the show’s fourth and fifth seasons each came in at 20 episodes.

When it was first confirmed that shows might be looking at shorter episode counts for the 2023-24 TV season due to the strikes, many anticipated The CW would look to turn out a 16-episode season of All American. However, it seems the network had to make more drastic cuts which will lead to a shortened season in 2024.

All American season 6 being 13 episodes shouldn’t hurt the show

While the idea of getting a shorter season sucks — yes I feel the pain as a fan of the show too! — the shorter episode order for All American‘s sixth season shouldn’t hurt the show. In fact, there is a chance it could actually make the writing even stronger!

With fewer episodes in season 6, the writers will have to make the storylines told across the season more focused which should mean fewer filler episodes/storylines. This should help the creative team tell a tighter story arc for each of the show’s key characters and avoid throwing in unexpected plotlines just for the sake of having content to fill the added hours of content needed in a season.

Seasons 1 and 2 of the show were amazing with the shorter 16-episode format helping with the show’s pacing as there wasn’t as much room for unneeded storylines. This allowed the show to take the characters on amazing arcs throughout the season without detours that did nothing to help further the story.

That’s not to say the show didn’t still have fun and allow the characters to stretch their wings, creative decisions were just a bit tighter as the writers had fewer episodes to tell the story they sought to tell over the course of those 16-episode seasons.

With only 13 episodes planned for season 6, the creative team is sure to pack a lot of story into each of those 13 episodes which should result in some amazing hours of television when the show finally returns in 2024.