As reported by Deadline, Showtime’s Episodes—the comedy series in which Matt LeBlanc plays a fictionalized version of himself—has just been picked up for a nine-episode fifth season. Thanks to the low number of episodes that cable networks air per season, those nine episodes will put Episodes just shy of the number of episodes of Joey that NBC produced (many of which never aired). Isn’t that weird? Like, we think of Joey as this huge flop, but it ran for almost two full seasons. Meanwhile, Episodes has been on for four—soon to be five—and we’re still bringing up Joey when we talk about Matt LeBlanc.
Anyway, Deadline says there has been “speculation” that the fifth season will be Episodes’ last, though Showtime didn’t say anything about that in its announcement. If this speculation is correct, Showtime’s lack of a comment about the show ending could mean this is one of those make-it-or-break-it seasons, and its fate will hinge on the kind of response this fifth season gets. For LeBlanc’s sake, though, we hope this lasts a little longer than Joey. Maybe then we’ll stop bringing up Joey.