Lucifer star Tom Ellis has confirmed that Netflix plans to release Season 5 in two 8-episode releases.
That is a decision JimHeath.TV predicted back in July on the day the streaming service announced there would be a 16 episode final season.
“Season five is going to be split into two halves,” Ellis confirmed to Kelly Clarkson. “Netflix is going to drop 8 episodes, and then there’s going to be a little break and then they’ll drop the other eight.”
Lucifer had previously been renewed for 10 episodes, but in July Netflix expanded it to 16 – perfect for a split.
Netflix has not said when the first 8 episodes will be dropped, but a May-October timeline may make the most sense.
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Netflix signaled a split release back in July.
“Lucifer Season 5 just got a HELL of a lot better — and bigger,” Netflix trumpeted. “We’ve added six more hours, for a grand total of 16 episodes!”
#Lucifer Season 5 just got a HELL of a lot better — and bigger! We’ve added six more hours, for a grand total of 16 episodes! pic.twitter.com/HILzaacpsb
— See What’s Next (@seewhatsnext) July 26, 2019
Ellis trumpeted the news under a BREAKING NEWS banner: “Hot of the press!!!! @LuciferNetflix final season will be 16 episodes!!!!!”
Hot of the press!!!! @LuciferNetflix final season will be 16 episodes!!!!!
?#lucifer https://t.co/V1aT93QirA— tom ellis (@tomellis17) July 26, 2019
Fans of the hit show Arrested Development know too well what it’s like when Netflix splits one season into parts.
The first half of the fifth season of the show premiered on May 29, 2018, and the second half on March 15, 2019.
Almost a full year wait.
Netflix has also split up other popular shows like The Ranch, Fuller House, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt into half seasons.
It’s clear Netflix has an audience of binge-watchers, but it’s also found that viewers watch some shows in shorter spurts than some of its other programming.
Breaking seasons up may make the content a little easier for viewers to digest.
Many Lucifans watched all the Season 4 episodes in a few sittings (or less).
But with new programming hitting Netflix weekly, if not daily, on top of the onslaught of content from other TV networks and streaming services, it can get a little overwhelming for non superfans.
And, from a business standpoint, there’s the reality that Lucifer is now the Most Watched Binged Show in history.
[My Take: Lucifer Does More To Promote Christianity Than Any Other Show On TV]
While some Lucifans believe the recent social media push for a 6th season prompted Netflix to add the six additional episodes, analysts now think it was more likely a combination of the writers complaining they had too much content for 10 episodes, and the open possibility of stretching out the final season.
“Our suspicion here is that this will also allow Netflix to double-dip,” said Sean Aune, editor of Batman-News. “While Netflix is known for dropping all the episodes of a season at once, it also has been known to split a season in half and call them parts one and two.”
Fox axed Lucifer last year after three seasons.
A month later, Netflix picked up the show for a fourth season of 10 episodes (which premiered in May), and then last month renewed the show for a fifth and final season.
This only confirms what was expected about season 5 being split into 2 parts. But it also confirms there needs to be more season’s of Lucifer than just 5. The writers have so many more idea’s for the series to go beyond just 5 season’s. They are very creative and could have gone further than just 5. I think they did a good job on the stories once they hit their stride. I did find the list of viewers per episode though at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lucifer_episodes
The list is about three quarters of the way down the page. If you look, the 4th and 8th columns show how many watched each episode. Lucifer started with 7.16 million + DVR and final count world wide, which would make sense for a pilot because of viewer curiosity for a new show. But the numbers dropped after that. Could have been because of the “Million Mom’s” movement wanting FOX to drop the show? But then die hard fan’s of both the comic book series and new fan’s kept up with the series and held the numbers more or less up. But when FOX played the game of injecting ‘specials’ in place of Lucifer, the numbers dropped a bit. I for one don’t care about American football, Dancing with the Stars and the Miss America or Miss Universe competition that replaced Lucifer those days. Which makes me think that if Tom Ellis could be on Dancing with the Stars, that might give him and “Lucifer” a leg up gaining more viewers. People are learning late about the series, so gaining more fans.
Hurray that the series is getting to be done with a final telling of the end. But Netflix could have given us more than 5 season’s ( or almost 6 if you count S-5 being split as 6) Thanks for letting me express my opinions and posting on your website.
Sorry for going on and on, but I’m a die hard Lucifer fangirl and would have loved it to go on for more than 5 season’s. I believe the writers had much more content they could write about if given another season or two instead being forced to jam in their idea’s into 16 final episodes. Season 4 seemed a bit rushed at first. though it was still good. Instead they (Netflix and Warner Bros-TV) are ending the series.