Freeform/Tony Rivetti
Switched at Birth is currently airing its final season, and the woman in charge is now speaking out about the long delay and the shortened length of the last season of the popular drama.
The Freeform series will have only 10 episodes to complete its story in season five. Lizzy Weiss said the following about the episode count for season five and the challenges it created to The Hollywood Reporter:
“We figured it out. I mean the network was kind enough to offer me either a 90-minute or a two-hour finale. I chose the 90-minute; I felt like a two-hour would have been flabby and really strange. Compared to a 44-minute episode, double that would have felt odd but I felt like that extra half-hour kind of gave us time to really give a sendoff to every important character. I think it worked out OK. We had a few weeks. It was a little faster than I had hoped but it wasn’t like we had to screech on the brakes and do a 180 or anything.”
As for the delay between season four and season five, the creator said the following:
“Well, to be honest, it was definitely frustrating. It was a lot longer than we anticipated and we were bummed for the fans that they had to wait so long in between seasons. Honestly, it feels like in the history of television, I don’t know if fans have ever waited over 15 months between seasons, but it does feel like our fans are pretty fervent and they’ve been waiting. I think the trick is to make sure they know. The challenge is that people reach out to me all the time on social media who are outside the core quote demo and they are older so it makes me think, ‘Well, if they’re reaching out to me and saying they love the show and they’re anxiously waiting for it to come back, then maybe there are a lot of other people in that demo who aren’t on social media, who aren’t aware.’ But we just are going to cross our fingers and hope that if they don’t find it exactly on January 31st then they’ll find it three days later or three weeks later or three months later on Netflix, I don’t know. The hope is just that they find it at some point because they’ve waited a long time and it’s the last 10 episodes of a very long five-year journey.”
Are you a fan of Switched at Birth? Are you sad to see this series end? Tell us what you think.
I have never been more involved in a story than I was with switched at birth. Following the story really made my life feel exciting. The drama and excitement in this show was awesome. I’m here to tell you I’m very upset this show has been canceled!! I’m heart broken now. I don’t even want to watch anything now.