By the time All American Season 6 premieres, the show will have been off the air for almost 11 months.
The football drama typically airs on The CW in the fall, but thanks to the dual Hollywood strikes that brought scripted TV to a halt, new episodes are still a while away.
All American has enjoyed five successful seasons, and there’s much skepticism about where the show can go beyond Season 6.
The CW has been laser-focused on change and eradicated most of the genre shows with millions of fans.
With the premiere of All American Season 6 coming up, there’s no time like the present to dive into everything there is to know about it.
We’ve done all the digging, so you don’t have to.
When will All American Season 6 premiere?
At one point, All American Season 6 was supposed to premiere on The CW in fall 2023.
Thanks to the aforementioned strikes, that plan changed as the show was pushed to midseason.
Initially, many thought that signaled a January premiere date, but the network went in a different direction.
The CW is under a new regime, and sadly, shows that were once a priority to the company are no longer that.
It’s also possible the network wanted to ensure it had all of the episodes in the can before premiering so that the show could air uninterrupted.
The CW, more than any other network, has had random breaks in the past that ruined the momentum and made us want to watch the entire season once it dropped on Netflix.
In February, we learned that All American Season 6 will premiere on Monday, April 1, at 8/7c.
All American Season 6: how many episodes have been ordered?
When The CW renewed All American for Season 6, it came with the caveat that we would get just 13 episodes.
That episode count makes for the shortest season to date.
While getting a few episodes after such a long hiatus sucks, it might work in the show’s favor.
Fewer episodes could result in tighter storytelling and less questionable plot twists that do more harm to the show than good.
All we can do is tune in to see if this works out well, but we’re inclined to believe it will.
There’s a reason why streaming shows are all the rage these days: There’s less that can go wrong with fewer episodes.
We also must stress that 13 episodes for All American is actually generous when you look at some of the competing shows.
The Good Doctor, Grey’s Anatomy, and Station 19 are all only getting 10 episodes because of the delayed production restarts driven by the strikes.
All American Season 6: who’s on the cast?
As you probably guessed already, Taye Diggs (Billy Baker) is out of the show as a series regular.
Billy was killed off in one of the most shocking episodes of the series as he tried to save all of his students after a bus crash.
Diggs did return a few episodes later in flashbacks, and there’s a good chance he could stage more appearances here and there as the show progresses.
The confirmed cast so far includes Daniel Ezra (Spencer), Bre-Z (Tamia “Coop” Cooper), Greta Onieogou (Layla), Samantha Logan (Olivia), Michael Evans Behling (Jordan), Cody Christian (Asher), Karimah Westbrook (Grace), Monet Mazur (Laura), Jalyn Hall (Dillon), and Chelsea Tavares (Patience).
The All American Season 6 cast is rounded out by Hunter Clowdus (JJ), Brent Jennings (Willie), Mitchell Edwards (Cam), Da’Vinchi (Darnell), and Kareen J. Grimes (Cordell).
There will likely be plenty more cast members joining the show, but with the reduced episode order, we hope the focus is on the ones we know and love.
All American Season 6 plot details
The CW has yet to provide a synopsis for the upcoming season, but we can draw some conclusions based on the events of the final episodes of All American Season 5.
Despite being on opposite sides of the world, Olivia and Spencer found their way back to each other.
Will having a long-distance relationship allow them the space they need from each other to make this work?
Their track record isn’t very good, but they are growing up, so maybe this will be good for them.
Then there’s Patience, whom Miko tragically stabbed in the season finale.
We’ve been waiting a long time for a resolution on that front for a long time, so we hope it lives up to the hype.
Everyone will still try to come to terms with Billy’s death because he made such a significant impact on all of their lives.
He was the person who was always there to offer words of advice in their time of need, so this isn’t going to be an easy process.
All American Season 6 premieres Monday, April 1, at 8/7c on The CW. Stream Seasons 1-5 on Netflix.