With “Succession” starting its final season tomorrow night and the highly anticipated “Yellowjackets” Season 2 premiere now streaming, TV weekends just don’t get any bigger. As we head into the final stretch of the Emmy eligibility period, the biggest players in streaming and cable are working to get their best shows out on time and make an impact with voters. For some long-running hits, entering spring as the Emmy front-runner is an annual inevitability. But in the age of Peak TV, it can be a surreal experience when a show becomes an awards favorite after appearing seemingly out of nowhere.
“Yellowjacket” definitely falls into the latter category. Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s uncategorizable Showtime thriller — which deals with the aftermath of a plane crash that forces a women’s soccer team to survive 19 months in the wilderness — was released in late 2021. Season 1 kept a lot of the show’s biggest mysteries under wraps, leading to countless fan theories among the show’s obsessed audience. Less than two years later, the season 2 premiere was one of the most anticipated television events of 2023.
No one is more surprised than the show’s creators. In a new interview The Hollywood Reporter, Lyle and Nickerson said they didn’t expect the show to get so big so quickly. They even revealed that they got advice on managing their expectations from an unlikely source: “Shrinking” co-creator Jason Segel.
“I think for a lot of people, we came from nowhere,” Lyle said of the show’s success. “Before the premiere, Jason Segel told us, ‘Don’t worry! There are three or four shows that everyone talks about and loves. There are three or four shows that everyone talks about and hates. The other 595 points fall in the middle. Find a small audience and you’re good to go. We thought we were going to be one of them, so this season feels different.”
Season 2 of “Yellowjackets” premieres now on Showtime’s streaming platforms. Showtime will air the episode on Sunday, March 26 at 9 p.m.
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