‘All American’ Season 6 Update: New Episodes Are Filming! (Plus Release Date Speculation, News, Cast, and More)

One of the most-watched shows on The CW, All American, is returning to the small screen for Season 6! The series began production on new episodes on December 4 in Los Angeles and is currently filming.

As fans wait for the hit show’s return, here’s what we know so far about All American Season 6. Note, there may be spoilers ahead from Season 5.

All American Returns for Season 6

Nexstar’s acquisition of The CW pretty much guaranteed renewal of All American for a sixth season. The CW’s president of entertainment Brad Schwartz announced the renewal in January 2023.

“Over the last five seasons, All American has established itself as one of the all-time CW flagship franchises,” said Schwartz. “All American is not only the network’s youngest series, but also the strongest performer when combining all our platforms.”

“We look forward to continuing our collaboration with showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, the entire creative team, and the incredible cast for another season of captivating family drama,” said Schwartz.

Due to its popularity, The CW sought to include the show in its fall lineup this year, but the ongoing strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA pushed the premiere back. However, it’s possible that some of the scripts were already drafted ahead of the strikes, which cleared the way for production to start in the summer. We do know that production was initially scheduled to begin in Summer 2023.

The show is inspired by the life of US football player Spencer Paysinger, and the show’s lead is named Spencer James. Spencer James is a rising high school player from South Crenshaw in Los Angeles and was scouted to play for the rival team of Beverly Hills High.

All American Cast

We can expect most of the cast to return for All American Season 6. This includes Daniel Ezra as Spencer James, Bre-Z as Tamia “Coop” Cooper, Greta Onieogou as Layla Keating, Michael Evans Behling as Jordan Baker, Cody Christian as Asher Adams, Karimah Westbrook as Grace James, Monet Mazur as Laura Fine-Baker, Jalyn Hall as Dillon James, and Hunter Clowdus as II Parker.

Madison Shamoun is also expected to return as Skye.

The characters whose return is uncertain include Samantha Logan as Olivia Baker and Chelsea Tavares as Patience Robinson. Taye Diggs who plays Billy Baker, will not be returning for season six as he was killed off at the end of season five. Billy Baker appeared later in the season through flashbacks, and Diggs has not ruled out returning to All American every now and then if needed.

Diggs told TV Line that Billy Baker could return as a ghost in All American Season 6.

“In the context of the boys are struggling, and they kind of envision me giving sage advice,” said Diggs.

Carroll also weighed in on Billy’s exit in the fifth season.

“I have ongoing conversations with all of my cast every season, so there’s nothing that ever comes out of the blue. We never had any delusions that we’d be able to hold onto Taye for 12 seasons or anything like that,” the showrunner told The Wrap.

“I was just like, ‘Whenever the time comes where it feels like the character has served his purpose, or Taye feels like he’s done what he’s come here to do, let’s have a conversation, and let’s make sure we’re on the same page,” said Carroll.

All American Season 6 Plot

We might have an idea of what All American Season 6 will be about based on what happened in Season 5. Jordan is figuring out how to be someone his father would be proud of. Spencer tackles how to be successful while empowering his friends and his team. Meanwhile, Coop is focused on the fear of possibly losing Patience, and Layla continues to focus on her career while being a good partner to Jordan. The show’s fifth season also ended with Patience getting stabbed by a stalker.

The synopsis for Season 5 reads:

“This season brings its fair share of sexy, messy love lives, hard lessons learned on and off the field, fun college drama, and parties galore.”

We can only speculate on which storylines could be followed through for All American Season 6. Expect Spencer and Olivia to continue their romance in season six after breaking up and eventually reuniting in Season 5. We can hope that Patience survives the stabbing, that happened while she also seemed set to reunite with Coop.

We can also hope that we continue to see more of JJ as he deals with his mental health. The subject of mental health among young male athletes is something All American has been lauded for. The topic would seem more important than ever as the characters are going to cope with Billy’s death.

What Else to Expect

For All American Season 6, we can expect around 16 to 20 episodes in the coming season. No official confirmation was made just yet on how long each episode will be. The ongoing strike action could change the number of episodes the upcoming season would ultimately have. We can speculate that season six would go down to 13 episodes.

All American Season 6 Release Date Speculation

While there’s not been an official release date announcement yet for All American Season 6, the good news is that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have ended. And production started back up on the series last December.

Last year’s strikes also led The CW to change its 2023 fall lineup. The network is turning to reality shows and international productions unaffected by the strike. Such shows that would be part of the lineup are FBoy Island, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Masters of Illusion, and World’s Funniest Animals.

As of January 2024, our best prediction is that the series could return in the summer at the earliest. However, it’s possible that the network will hold the series until fall 2024.

For now, fans can rewatch the first five seasons of All American on Netflix. There’s also the spinoff All American: Homecoming, which The CW also renewed for a third season. The show also downsized its episode count from 20 to 13, likely due to the strikes. The series also made changes to its cast, with Peyton Alex Smith and Kelly Jenrette no longer being series regulars.