Warning: spoilers ahead for the Season 6 finale of All American on The CW, called "I Do (Part II)."
All American set up quite the crisis for Spencer and Olivia ahead of the Season 6 finale, with disaster striking their wedding venue and seemingly requiring them to delay indefinitely, as they needed to relocate to New York City ASAP so Spencer could start training camp. Spencer was determined to give his bride-to-be her perfect wedding day anyway. So, after the better part of an hour with Spencer rushing to try and find a solution while Olivia tried not to unravel (complete with some classic finale montages), their friends came out in force to make the wedding happen for a very happy Season 6 finale in the 2024 TV schedule.
But when the final credits rolled, I found myself wishing that "I Do (Part II)" was actually the All American series finale, even in spite of what showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll said about the reason for the wedding as the way to end the season. Here's why, starting with Carroll's comments.
Why The Showrunner Wanted The Wedding To End Season 6
All American Season 6 was actually originally set to end after thirteen episodes, as one of many shows with shortened seasons following the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike. For a while, it seemed that All American could be cancelled and Episode 13 would be the end. Then, The CW confirmed back in May that the episode count had been bumped up to fifteen, and then officially renewed the show for Season 7. Speaking with TVLine about the Season 6 finale, showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll shared:
The whole reason we asked Warner Bros. and The CW for an additional two episodes was because I wanted to do the wedding. And I wanted to have two episodes dedicated to paying homage to the journey that ‘Spelivia’ had been on, and what it takes to finally get them to the altar… Everyone was so supportive of me telling this story the way I wanted to tell it that they gave us the additional two episodes to do it.
Season 6 needed two extra episodes for a finale that could finish the Spelivia journey and say a fitting farewell to at least Spencer, after news broke in late June that Daniel Ezra wouldn't return to All American as a series regular in Season 7. Deadline did confirm that Ezra would make guest appearances in the seventh season, but it's fitting that he got a big sendoff from the series while he was still a regular.
So, it was deliberate that the wedding episode felt like a series finale for Spencer specifically, but the finished product was tied up so neatly and so happily that I actually double checked during a commercial break to make sure I was remembering correctly that All American had been renewed. And even after confirming that Season 7 was on the way, I found myself wishing that Season 6 was the end.
Would The Wedding Have Made For A Good Series Finale?
Not every show is lucky enough to deliver a proper series finale due to cancellations after a season had already finished production, which was the case earlier in the 2024 TV season with shows like So Help Me Todd and NCIS: Hawai'i over on CBS. In fact, even The CW doesn't always give shows time to tie off its loose ends. Sure, shows like Arrow and The Flash got shortened final seasons to wrap things tup, but Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow weren't so fortunate. My point here being that All American got two bonus episodes to end Season 6 in a way that would be a great conclusion to the series, and there's no guarantee that the same will be true in Season 7.
Of course, you might feel differently if your favorite characters weren't Spencer and/or Olivia, since they by far got the most focus in the Season 6 finale. And I will admit that "I Do (Part II)" did end on an unresolved cliffhanger, with Jordan discovered a baby photo in his dad's coaching binder that wasn't actually of his dad. He learned from Grandpa Willy that the baby was actually his dad's older half brother, but he didn't get any more details before the final credits rolled on Season 6.
Still, even characters who didn't get a ton of screentime did get some closure to their stories. Coop got into law school at GAU and Yale, and even though she didn't make a decision about which before the end of the episode, she did get a sweet pep talk from Spencer. The Baker house is now in Layla and Jordan's names, courtesy of Laura, with Jordan following in his father's footsteps with a coaching job at South Crenshaw. Spencer and Olivia will of course be in NYC.
Call me a pessimist, but there's just no way to be sure that All American will go beyond Season 7 or even get the chance to craft a solid ending at the end of Season 7 like what happened with Season 6. While it would be a bummer for the show to end after it became one of the top influential Black dramas from the last decade, the Season 6 finale would have made a great series finale.
At the time of writing, The CW has not announced a premiere date for Season 7, although the show isn't expected to return before 2025. You can revisit earlier days of All American in the meantime, though, as the first five seasons are available streaming with a Netflix subscription and the sixth will arrive on the streamer on July 23.
