What weeks of aúpa await us to series lovers, since over the next few weeks we will attend the premieres of the final seasons of no less than four of the best series on the air. A few seasons, of weekly deliveries, which lead to four series finals in less than a week. All in May.
The first to say goodbye will be ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’, who will say goodbye on May 26 on Prime Video; he Sunday May 28 we will see separate endings for ‘Succession’ and ‘Barry’ on HBO (Max); closing the month we will have ‘Ted Lasso’, whose season 3 will conclude on Wednesday may 31.
In the case of the latter, it must be clarified, yes, that although from Apple TV + there is no official confirmation that this is the case, both creators and actors actively and passively assure that the story of the Richmond coach ends in this season 3 .
Even so, the count is interesting… and that would have to count on the possibility that Netflix will premiere in those weeks the 4th and last season of ‘I never’, whose filming ended last August. There is another series finale, that of ‘The Flash’ that is scheduled for the May 24.
Honing the Emmys
It is no coincidence, yes, that these finals are crowded in that last week of May. There is a very compelling reason and it is that the month marks the limit in which a series must be broadcast if it wants to compete in the 2023 Emmy Awards. Specifically, the eligibility period closes on the 31st and any series that wants to enter the awards must have at least six broadcast episodes by then.
A requirement that this year has changed. Until 2022 there was the rule of the “hung episode”, which allowed episodes that were broadcast outside the period to be sent and taken into account. With this choice of dates, the producers make sure they meet this group of candidates more than enough. In addition, they avoid competing the following year with the risk that this would imply of being forgotten because a whole year has passed.
These dates, corresponding to the television season, have been governing American television for decades, when in order to better position advertising sales (of cars, above all) they established autumn as the “high season”. With the television paradigm shift as well the emmys gala moved which, in 1977, went from being held normally in May (and before that between January and February) to September.