We’ve known for a while that the final season of “Breaking Bad” would be made up of 16 episodes, but we didn’t know exactly when it would debut, or how AMC would arrange the episodes to maximize their remaining installments of the Emmy-winning drama.
Now we do, as the cable channel announced today that the final season will premiere on Sunday, July 15 at 10 p.m., and that the plan is to air 8 episodes this summer and then the remaining 8 episodes in the summer of 2013.
(As to why they don’t just refer to this as two short seasons: it’s a contractual issue. Same reason the final 21 episodes of “The Sopranos,” which also aired over two years, are considered the show’s sixth “season.”)
AMC also announced the two shows that will be paired “Breaking Bad” this summer. Starting July 15 at 11 p.m. will be a new unscripted series, “Small Town Security,” about a family-owned security company in a small town in Georgia. And starting August 12 at 9 p.m. will be season 2 of “Hell on Wheels.” (Which reminds me I still have 2 or 3 episodes of that first season to catch up on.)
And in the meantime, here’s Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul on the set of the final season: