Jensen Ackles is continuous his streak of recent post-Supernatural reveals within the 2025 TV schedule with Countdown, an action-packed drama sequence with sky-high stakes releasing on Prime Video. This is not his first streaming enterprise and even his first sequence on the platform after The Boys, however he and co-star Eric Dane spoke with CinemaBlend about why Countdown advantages from a weekly launch schedule, like a seemingly rising variety of different sequence, as an alternative of releasing the complete season directly.
Jensen Ackles was paired with Eric Dane for our interview throughout Prime Video’s Countdown press junket, and between practically 140 episodes of ABC’s Gray’s Anatomy for Dane and greater than 325 episodes of The CW’s Supernatural for Ackles, the 2 stars know what they’re speaking about on the subject of weekly episode releases.
Once I requested why that mannequin is an effective match for Countdown with LAPD Detective Mark Meachum (Ackles) working with Nathan Blythe (Dane) on a activity drive to save lots of the town of Los Angeles, Dane mentioned that he thinks “it is a ‘I wish to present up and watch it on the day’ tv present.” Ackles elaborated:
I really feel like simply the trade as an entire, there’s a little bit of a swing again from the streamer form of Netflix mannequin, if you’ll, of dropping all of the episodes on one weekend. I at all times discovered, simply personally, when that may occur, a present would drop and everybody that was out there to observe all eight or ten episodes or no matter would achieve this. And when you did not, when you have been like me and did not have the chance to observe all the pieces, you have been behind. And subsequent factor you [know], you possibly can’t be in conversations with folks on the water cooler anymore, as a result of they are going to provide you with spoilers. And now, swiftly, it is like, ‘Nicely, what is the level in watching? I am to this point behind, and I’ve heard the spoiler, and now it is a type of issues.’
As any person who has been protecting tv lengthy sufficient that I recall when Netflix was the one main streamer, I definitely really feel the Winchesters alum’s ache on the subject of simply not having time to observe the most well liked new reveals earlier than spoilers are in every single place. There’s simply an excessive amount of on too many platforms to binge frequently… if you wish to match sleep into your schedule, anyway.
Fortunately – so far as I am involved, anyway – Prime Video has leaned into the historically weekly mannequin vs. the binge mannequin, and I am loving having the chance to mull over occasions, debate episodes, and give you theories which will or might not be spectacularly flawed. Name me an previous woman, however I am a fan of what Ackles described because the “swing again” from the mannequin of releasing full seasons directly.
Ackles was a well-known face on primetime community TV even earlier than Supernatural with reveals like Darkish Angel and Smallville, in addition to after the long-running present’s finish with Large Sky and even Tracker. Throw in practically 550 episodes of Days of Our Lives, and never many individuals might declare as a lot community TV expertise as Ackles. Prime Video releasing episodes of Countdown weekly does not imply that it will really feel like a present that might air on community TV, however followers can get pleasure from that very same rush for a number of weeks quite than ending it in a single fell swoop. He went on:
So broadcast-wise, you get this [Countdown] every week, and folks can speak concerning the earlier episode that week, however you do not really feel such as you get misplaced, otherwise you get left behind. I like the truth that the pendulum is form of swinging again to a center floor of streamer broadcast, and also you do have these form of weekly releases, and I really feel prefer it provides the present an opportunity to retain extra of an viewers’s consideration that approach.
Eric Dane chimed in to say that “I just like the tempo of that,” so the consensus between the celebs was clear: this present is an effective match for ten episodes unfold out over a few months. Whereas Countdown is releasing weekly, the brand new sequence will launch the primary three episodes on June 25 for any viewers with an Amazon Prime Video subscription.
I will not drop any spoilers right here, however having watched them myself, I might say that they make for an important trio to kick off the sequence whereas additionally setting the stage for heightened drama shifting ahead. Jensen Ackles and Eric Dane are joined within the Countdown forged by Jessica Camacho, Violett Beane, Elliot Knight, and Uli Latukefu, with Chicago Hearth‘s Derek Haas on board as creator, showrunner, and author of all ten episodes.
The primary three episodes of Countdown premiere on Wednesday, June 25 on Prime Video, with subsequent episodes persevering with to launch on Wednesdays by early September. Bodily water coolers could also be a factor of the previous for many individuals, however this mannequin will give viewers the prospect to tug out the motion over months as an alternative of simply ten hours, and many to speak about.
As for Jensen Ackles and his lengthy historical past on community TV, Supernatural followers have been exhibiting him love because the first have a look at Countdown dropped, and that hasn’t modified from the famously passionate fandom because the weeks counted down till the June 25 premiere.