FX boss confirms a premiere date for The Bear season 3
John Landgraf also says that season 3 will most likely be a binge release as well
Alright, get ready for the cast of The Bear to yell “Yes, chef!” on your screen in a few months. It’s not necessarily a surprise, but it’s still a relief to get confirmation from FX Chairman John Landgraf that the award-winning comedy will be back soon. At the 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour, he revealed The Bear will run in June this year.
As for talking about what series creator Christopher Storer has in store, Landgraf says he’s pretty much in the dark (if you want to believe him). He added he wasn’t, for example, told about the many cameos in season two’s “Fishes.” “Given the way The Bear is made, I was as surprised as you when the episode came through the door and I experienced that whole cast,” he added.
He also shouted out the show’s 10 well-deserved Emmys last month, including the Outstanding Comedy Series win. No wonder Landgraf (and all of us) are highly anticipating what season three will bring. However, the big question is if it will be another binge release. “I have no doubt we’ll do it,” Landgraf confirmed, so expect to sit through potentially stressful episodes back-to-back.
To explain the decision, he elaborated: “It’s not lost on me or anyone making the show that it’s anxiety-inducing, but we made the decision back in season one that we would drop the whole thing as a binge. The first time I had an inkling of it being a hit was when a colleague told me the day after it dropped that 100,000 concurrent streams were watching the eighth episode. For season two, we debated the rollout to see if we can milk it. But then we thought it was a rotten thing to do to the audience. And the way Chris makes it, each episode feels separate but it has an overall vibe, so even if we could change the [release model] we won’t.”
(For the record, we think a weekly drop would’ve benefitted season two).
Along with The Bear, FX’s Chairman also previewed the other 2024 upcoming originals on the cable network. Noah Hawley’s Alien won’t arrive until 2025 because of the excessive post-production requirements. There’s also no word on Fargo season six, because Landgraf hopes Hawley makes subsequent seasons of Alien.
However, what FX does have in store includes new seasons of The Old Man, What We Do In The Shadows, and Welcome To Wrexham. There’s also the Elisabeth Moss-led thriller The Veil, which premieres in April. And then there’s Dying For Sex, starring Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. It revolves around a woman who is diagnosed with breast cancer. She leaves her husband of 15 years to explore her sexuality before her death. There’s also Brian Jordan Alvarez’s The English Teacher about a high school teacher in Austin trying to balance the demands of his students and their parents.
Yes, these all sound promising, but we’ll be counting down the days until we’re back at Chicago’s best fictional restaurant.