The final ever season of Glee has begun, but it looks like not a lot of people want to stick around to find out what happens to Rachel Berry and co. In fact, it appears they've dismissed the sixth season of the all singing, all dancing FOX Network show from the start, following the release of the viewing figures for Friday night when the first episode of the last season premiered.
Ever since it began in 2009, it captured attention with its upbeat cast, storylines and songs but as the years have passed, the viewing numbers began to decline and according to Entertainment Weekly, the first episode of the new season only drew in a 0.7 rating in the adults 18-49 bracket, with 2.3 million viewers tuning in to see Lea Michele's Rachel Berry perform the hit 'Let It Go' from Disney's Frozen. This isn't good news for all those involved in the show as the ratings are 65% down from the season five premiere. However, the fact that the two hour episode was aired on a Friday instead of its usual Thursday slot, could provide part of the explanation as to why the ratings dipped so much.
But did the show's bosses preempt that the final season wouldn't do so well? In the months that followed Ryan Murphy's announcement that the show would be coming to an end, it was revealed that season six would only feature 13 episodes instead of the usual 24 episodes which have filled past seasons. Before the news was made public, Fox's chairman Kevin Reilly said - according to Deadline - “We're going to sit down and talk [with co-creator/exec producer Ryan Murphy] about how to end the show and how many that is." The show also failed to appear in the schedule line up for the fall season for the first time.
Some familar faces return to glee club (Glee / Fox / Twitter)
Ok, so the ratings might not be great, but there are still gleeks (including us) that are still out there and want to know what's going to happen in the season. After Ryan revealed last year that the final season would include many of the original cast members, details about the storyline began to surface. After her time in New York where she had a stint on Broadway playing Fanny Bryce in Funny Girl, Rachel returned to McKinley High to get the school's glee club up and running again after Sue Sylvester shut it down.
A sneaky snap shot from Naya Rivera last year also raised speculation that her character Santana will be getting married. After Brittany S.Pearce made a brief return in the last season, could it be wedding bells for the ladies? Posting a picture of a veil, Naya tweeted the caption: "Exciting day on the set of Glee!", after teasing: "Back on the #Glee set now for an extra special BIG Brit/Santana episode!"
Naya teased this picture from the set of Glee (Naya Rivera / Instagram)
