‘Glee’ season 5 debate: How could Fox handle sixth (and final) season?

Is “Glee” really tanking out in the way that the most of the initial ratings seem? It may sound crazy, but some reports coming out right now suggest that the Fox musical comedy may be much more of a success story right now than most of the public is making it out to be.

As a new story from The Hollywood Reporter notes, “Glee’s” new episodes are shifting more than 60% in the key 18-49 demographic when you factor in seven days of DVR viewing, and also cites an interesting statement from Fox COO Joe Earley that the show remains a top 10 program on network TV with teens, and also families with incomes of more than $100,000 a year. Since these are typically the people who run to the stores to buy things, it is pretty reasonable to assume that these viewers in particular are very coveted.

It has been confirmed now that season 5 will in fact be only 20 episodes long rather than the standard 22 (the production hiatus this past fall is a big reason for that), but the reason that we mentioned the data above is because Fox still has a decision to make when it comes to whether or not they want to give the show’s sixth and final season 13 episodes to just get the show over with, or the standard 22 or even 24, which would make up for the two that it missed this season. Executive producer Ian Brennan mentioned that Fox may also choose to air the show in unusual time slots, since the DVR numbers are so strong that most viewers will end up finding it anyway.

Personally, we wouldn’t be surprised if there is still a larger final season thanks to the sole fact that 20th Century Fox owns the show, and they can still make some money off of it thanks to all the revenue streams that are out there. The shortest that we could see a final season being is 13 episodes, mostly because for this show, anything less would be perceived as a slap in the face to fans.

“Glee” returns on Tuesday with “Bash,” an episode that looks pretty dramatic for Chris Colfer’s Kurt based on the promo that is out there. The show still has over a month’s worth of episodes to go before signing off for the season.

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Photo: Fox