'All American' Returns Tonight With Season 5 Premiere

By Brian Jones

One one the most popular sports shows on television returns tonight. All American will air its Season 5 premiere on The CW at 8 p.m. ET. The show was on hiatus since the Season 4 finale aired in May, and fans saw the relationship between Spencer James (Daniel Ezra) and Olivia Baker (Samantha Logan) in limbo. Spencer and Olivia are going to school together but their career paths have led to them clashing. 

"With everyone on holiday break, Spencer (Ezra), decides to throw an epic Christmas party, with the help of JJ (Hunter Clowdus) and Asher (Cody Christian), as an excuse to bring him and Olivia (Logan) closer," the official synopsis of the premiere episode of Season 5 states. "Jordan (Michael Evans Behling) gets news about his hand, but he isn't sure what to do.  After weeks of research, Olivia and Billy (Taye Diggs) think they may have a breakthrough on their investigation.  Layla (Greta Onieogou) decides to take matters into her own hands to get her dad's company."

While speaking to TODAY last year, Ezra talked about why he signed up to be in the football drama. "Football is a really cool backdrop for the show," he said. "The sheer amount of money and pressure and attention that's put on these kids, these high-level athletes at 16, 17, 18, is unfathomable. And it was something that blew my mind. The first time I went to a college football stadium, I was like, 'You mean to tell me 80,000 people came up to watch 19-year-olds play football,' and everyone was like, 'Yeah.' It blew my mind. There's some towns where it's like the whole town shut down to go and watch a high school game. And so I was always curious about what that must do to these kids mentally."

All American premiered on The CW in Oct. 2018 and 71 episodes have aired on the network. Season 4 was the biggest season for the show as it featured 20 episodes. The series is inspired by the life of former NFL player Spencer Paysinger who played for the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins from 2011 to 2016. Paysinger played linebacker and grew up in South Los Angeles. He attended Beverly Hills High School and then went on to play college football at Oregon. 

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