Apple’s Next Big Apple TV+ Show Is Set to Premiere on Jan. 17

It’s only been six weeks since the service launched, and Apple’s already having a great run with Apple TV+, which appears to be taking Hollywood by storm before their brand new shows have even finished their first-season runs. Of course, Apple has a lot more in the pipeline, and in what we’re pretty sure will become a regular thing, the company has just announced the premiere date for its next big show.

Apple’s Little America, an anthology series that tells the stories of immigrant families in America, has been set to premiere on January 17, 2020, and unlike many of Apple’s other headline shows, we’ll be getting all eight episodes of the first season right out of the gate.

Little America was one of the shows that was teased when Apple first took the wraps off Apple TV+ back in March, but we haven’t really heard much about the series since, although many expected that it would be the next series to debut on the streaming service. The series is inspired by true stories from Epic Magazine and is being written and executive produced by Lee Eisenberg (The Office), Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley), Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick), Alan Yang (Parks and Recreation), Sian Heder (Orange is the New Black), Joshuah Bearman (Argo), Joshua Davis (Spare Parts), and Arthur Spector (The Shack), so there’s a lot of talent behind this one. Further, Eisenberg and Heder have teamed up as showrunners for the series.

An Anthology Series

Unlike the serial productions that Apple has put out thus far, each episode of Little America will be a half-hour episode that features its own unique story of immigrants from different parts of the world and different areas of the United States. For example, episode 1, The Manager, tells the story of 12-year-old Kabir who is forced to run a motel in Utah by himself after his parents are deported back to India, while the second episode, The Jaguar, goes in a completely different direction, featuring an undocumented teenager from Mexico who wants to be a competitive squash star.

The anthological nature of the series is probably one of the main reasons why Apple is releasing all eight episodes of the first season all at once; since the episodes are unrelated to each other, it’s not going to have the “edge-of-your-seat” hook like The Morning Show and For All Mankind have between episodes that keep viewers itching for more. On the other hand, this isn’t the first series that Apple has released “binge-style” with all episodes at once; Dickinson, Apple’s half-hour comedy series about the life of poet Emily Dickinson came out all at once, but even though it covers a single topic, the episodes themselves are largely standalone stories in the same way as most sitcoms.

Still More to Come

It’s also notable that Apple has already renewed Little America for a second season, so it obviously likes what it’s seen so far. Most of Apple’s other shows are also slated for second seasons already; The Morning Show had a two-season order right out of the gate, while For All Mankind, See, and Dickinson got second-season orders in the weeks leading up to the debut of Apple TV+. It’s unclear right now when Apple plans to air the second seasons, but since the entire debut lineup will be over by the end of the year — the season finale of See has already aired, and The Morning Show and For All Mankind will wrap up on Dec. 20 — it’s obvious that Apple is going to need to continue announcing new shows if it wants Apple TV+ to continue to draw in new subscribers, and encourage existing ones to stick around.

Apple’s more recently-premiered Servant and Truth Be Told will run into January, and the company has already listed the J.J. Abrams and Sara Bareilles series Little Voice as “Coming Soon” on its Apple TV+ press page, suggesting that it will be the next one to debut.

By all reports, Apple’s work on its Amazing Stories reboot is continuing, after it missed its Nov. 1 debut due to production schedule setbacks, and the upcoming Rob McElhenney comedy Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, was already announced by Ubisoft months ago, although there was no release date and we haven’t heard a peep about it since. Other shows that are likely still in the works include Central Park, an adult animated comedy series from the creator of Bob’s Burgers, plus an HGTV-style documentary series Home, and a Damien Chazelle scripted TV drama.

We’ve heard vague rumours of another new show in the works, Home Before Dark, which is allegedly a young detective story, but the relative dearth of information on this one suggests that Apple could have even more projects up its sleeve that we’ve actually heard nothing about at all.

Apple’s next big flagship series, however, will likely be Masters of the Air, which is the continuation of HBO’s Band of Brothers and Pacific World War II sagas, and is being co-produced by the same dynamic duo of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. This will also be the first project produced entirely in Apple’s own studio, making it a truly “Apple Original” production. That said, we’re not really expecting to see this one until next fall, due to what is undoubtedly going to be a pretty heavy production schedule along with the fact that it will be the ideal time for Apple to release something as big as this — both as a headline-making entry into the normal fall lineup as well as a way to convince all of the users who are currently getting Apple TV+ free for a year to actually start paying for the service.