‘Yellowjackets’ Showrunners Share the Advice Jason Segel Gave Them

With “Succession” set to kick off its final season tomorrow night and the long-awaited premiere of “Yellowjackets” Season 2 now streaming, TV weekends just don’t get much bigger than this. As we enter the final stretch of the Emmy eligibility period, the biggest players in streaming and cable are working to ensure that their top shows are released in time to leave a mark with voters. For some long-running hits, entering the spring as an Emmy frontrunner is an annual inevitability. But in the age of Peak TV, it can be a surreal experience when a show becomes an awards darling after seemingly emerging out of nowhere.

“Yellowjackets” is firmly in the latter category. Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s uncategorizable Showtime thriller — which deals with the aftermath of a plane crash that forces a women’s soccer team to spend 19 months surviving in the wilderness — took the world by storm when it premiered in late 2021. Season 1 kept many of the show’s biggest mysteries under wraps, which led to the development of countless fan theories from the show’s obsessive audience. Less than two years later, the Season 2 premiere was one of the most anticipated television events of 2023.

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Nobody is more surprised than the show’s creators. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lyle and Nickerson said that they did not expect the show to become so big so quickly. They even revealed that they received some advice about managing their expectations from an unlikely source: “Shrinking” co-creator Jason Segel.

“I think we came out of nowhere for a lot of people,” Lyle said of the show’s success. “Before it premiered, Jason Segel told us, ‘Don’t worry! There are three or four shows that everyone talks about and loves. There are three or four shows that everyone talks about and fucking hates. The other 595 fall right in the middle. Find a little audience and it’s fine.’ We thought we’d be one of those, so this season feels different.”

The Season 2 premiere of “Yellowjackets” is now available to watch on Showtime’s streaming platforms. Showtime will broadcast the episode on Sunday, March 26 at 9 p.m. ET.

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