The first season consists of 22 episodes, which premiered on November 2, 2003, and concluded on June 6, 2004. Fox picked up a full 22-episode second season, which premiered on November 7, 2004, but its production order was later cut down to 18 episodes.[1] The second season concluded on April 17, 2005. The show's third season premiered on September 19, 2005, and was also originally slated for 22 episodes, but the production order was later cut down to 13.[1] The final four episodes of the series' original run were shown in one two-hour block on February 10, 2006, against NBC's coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.[2] A total of 53 episodes of Arrested Development were produced over its original three seasons.
In November 2011, however, it was announced that Netflix would license a new season.[9] The fourth season of Arrested Development began filming in August 2012[10] and debuted on Netflix's streaming video service on May 26, 2013.[11] Netflix announced on May 17, 2017, that it officially renewed the series for a fifth season,[12] which consists of 16 episodes split into two eight-episode parts; the first half premiered on May 29, 2018, and the second half on March 15, 2019.[13][14]