Fans of The Bear should get ready for an annual binge, FX’s John Landgraf revealed at the TCA winter press tour on Friday, February 9th. The Emmy-winning comedy, now in production on Season 3, is set to debut June 2024, with all episodes premiering at once.
Landgraf acknowledged that this will be the pattern going forward for the series, one that began with the first season in 2022. “We all watched the first season, we talked about it, and it wasn’t lost on me or anyone else who worked on the show that it’s a little anxiety-inducing… So we made a decision that we would drop the whole thing as a binge, because for those of you who saw it, it has a really beautiful, very uplifting ending.”
The strategy worked, he added: “Literally the first time I had an inkling of how a big hit it would be was when I talked to a friend and colleague of the platform the day after we dropped it. And she said, there are currently a hundred thousand concurrent streams right now in America watching the eighth episode of The Bear — the day after we dropped the whole thing.”
When the time came to discuss the release of Season 2, Landgraf continues, “we debated, since we knew now we had a hit, and you know, can we milk it a little bit and can we roll it out over weeks?” But they decided that it “would be a rotten thing to do, to change it up for the audience… So we just decided not to change what we’d already set in motion. And I have no doubt we’ll just keep doing it.”
Another fun fact: Because production on The Bear keeps its secrets close, Landgraf didn’t know about the caliber of guest stars brought in for Season 2 until he first watched the episodes. “I was as surprised as you when the Christmas episode [‘Fishes’] came through the door — I experienced he cast that had been pulled together with the surprise and freshness of the audience, which you don’t get to do very often in the network job.”
The Bear Season 2 not only made Consequence‘s best TV of 2023 list, but Season 1 cleaned up at the most recent Emmy Awards in January. (Its second season will be eligible for the Emmys this fall.) For more, check out our breakdown of how the Season 1 episode “Review” was made, and why Season 2 had to include a Taylor Swift needle drop.
Fans can catch up on the first two seasons of The Bear on Hulu (subscribe here).