‘Glee’ season 5 episode order reportedly reduced to 20

After reports to the contrary surfaced earlier this year, it is looking more and more now like “Glee” will produce a smaller amount of stories this season, after all.

According to a report from the Futon Critic, the Fox musical-comedy is only going to have 20 installments this season. This is something that was suspected when the network unveiled their finale dates recently, and the show was listed as ending on Tuesday, May 13. The only way that would be possible if there was a 22-episode season is if there were double-episodes airing at some point, and this late in the game, you would think that we would have started to hear about this.

Ultimately, there are really two reasons why this order is coming out this way.

1. Cory Monteith’s passing – The show started production later than usual, so this tragedy of course had an impact on how quickly episodes could be made.

2. Ratings – If the show was getting bigger numbers, we’re sure that producers would have found a way to figure this our. But from our vantage point, staying at McKinley after graduation really siphoned out the ratings at a fast pace. They probably still would not be amazing now anything thanks to fatigue, but it hurt it pretty badly. The show is renewed already for a sixth season, and while nothing is confirmed, we would not be shocked to learn that the next season is only somewhere between 6-13 episodes designed to wrap up the story and send the characters packing the right way.

“Glee’s” next new episode Tuesday night is a repilot of sorts entitled “New New York,” and if you want to get more on that, then just visit the link here. Also, sign up for our CarterMatt Newsletter if you want to get more news worth singing about via email.

Photo: Fox