Why Glee's Final Season Was Shortened

Fox boss Peter Rice assured that Glee will "go out in a way that celebrates" it in its upcoming sixth season

By Tierney Bricker Jul 20, 2014 7:09 PMTags
Chris Colfer, Lea Michele, Heather Morris, GleeMike Yarish/FOX

Glee's final season will be a celebration.

Though the show's sixth and final season order was trimmed from 22 to 13 episodes, Fox's Chairman and CEO Peter Rice assured that Glee will "go out in a way that celebrates it." 

"I think Glee is one of the great shows in television history...it was so hot and so big," Rice said at the 2014 Summer TCA Press Tour on Sunday, adding that the network "assumed it was going to fail" before it premiered in 2009.

"It touched so many hearts and it brought social issues to floor and it burned so hot and so fast," he continued.

And Rice explained that one of the benefits of a shortened season is that the episodes will air in a straight-run with no breaks. 

"We want to go out in way that celebrates it," he said. "We thought that a final 13 episodes and compacting it and doing it in a straight-run was a better way to finish the show."

In the final season, which will air in 2015, fans can expect to see a time-jump and a shift away from New York, as well as a reduced role for Naya Rivera, who will no longer be a series regular. 

But Ryan Murphy is hoping to see some of Glee's former stars who have exited the series return for the show's big finish. "My feeling about the last season of Glee is very clear, and that is that we will be reaching out to all of the regulars on the show, that original group of Glee club members and the teachers, and anybody who wants to come back can come back. Anybody who wants to be a part of the show, we welcome them." 

Glee's sixth season will air at midseason on Fox.