Way back in September, HBO renewed “Tremé” for an abbreviated fourth and final season: five episodes rather than the 10 or 11 that the show made in its first three seasons. (As co-creator David Simon said at the time, they were given enough money to make “half a loaf.”) But it wasn’t until today that HBO actually said when those five episodes (all of which have been produced) of the drama about life in post-Katrina New Orleans will air.
During a press tour executive session with CEO Richard Plepler and president Michael Lombardo, it was announced (or, rather, stated casually in response to a question) that the five-episode final season will begin airing on December 1 at 9 p.m., the week after “Boardwalk Empire” concludes its latest season.
It’s a bit longer to wait for new episodes of a show whose most recent season ended back in November, but it’s also nice in one way: because most of the broadcast networks and even most of the cable networks don’t do a ton of targeted original programming in December, “Tremé” might get a bit more attention on the way out the door than it has airing in fall and spring.
(Also, for those who wondered if Simon and Eric Overmyer might produce slightly longer episodes to compensate for only having five episodes to play with, I’m told that the only extra-long episode will be, as usual, the finale.)