‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Showrunner Talks Season 3 & Why Netflix Was The Perfect Home Over CBS

It’s been a while since we got an official update regarding The Lincoln Lawyer season 3, but in a new podcast on Beat LA, showrunner Ted Humphrey sat down with the two hosts to discuss the show’s past, provide some tidbits on season 3, and discuss Hollywood at large. 

The full interview is worth watching and listening to for Ted’s insights into the business of Hollywood post-strike and a dash of sports talk.

Here’s a breakdown of what we learned from the podcast episode:

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Why The Lincoln Lawyer Went to Netflix and Why It Worked Better

Early in the podcast, Humphrey talks about how the show jumped to Netflix. For those unfamiliar, the show was actually developed in the early days as a CBS show and even began shooting before getting shown down.

“This could be successful,” Humphrey says, but as production began, it became evident that the show’s dark and serialized nature was a poor fit for CBS’s traditional format. “But then the more we got into it, I realized it wasn’t going to work at CBS because we were doing the show you’re watching on Netflix is exactly the show we were going to do at CBS. And that wasn’t going to work at CBS. It’s too serialized. It’s a little too dark,” the showrunner revealed.

“The people at CBS didn’t want to hear it. The studio that was involved and the other producers didn’t really want to hear it. They were all just like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like this, because all they had was visions of dollar signs and like 22-episode syndication, which doesn’t even exist anymore in their heads,” they explained, highlighting the disconnect between creative vision and network expectations.

Humphrey then talks about how the show started production but was saved by COVID. “I say this very cognizant of what an extreme thing, in a way, this is to say. But COVID was the best thing that ever happened to our show,” talking about how production was canceled during the early days of the pandemic. “Luckily, we were able to very quickly pivot and sell it to Netflix, which I always believed was the right home for it because Netflix does a really good job with this kind of serialized, especially based on IP, based book series,” the creator concluded.

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What Netflix Wants From Its Shows and How Hollywood Has Changed Recently

Talking about what Netflix wants from a show, Humphrey states that they want more “populist” and what he refers to as “prestigial,” which is “not a procedural, but it’s kind of adjacent to something like a prestigial.”

Humphrey acknowledged the current landscape of Hollywood but expressed confidence in the resilience of traditional entertainment. “I don’t think scripted entertainment is going away,” when it was put forward that TikTok would be the main way of consuming all entertainment as we advance.

Reflecting on the past decade, Humphrey noted the unsustainable boom in scripted shows, highlighting the shift from lavish spending to a more measured approach. “Places like Netflix were spending a huge [expletive] ton of money to put stuff on the air that nobody was watching just because they were building up to scale,” they explained. Now, with a focus on ratings and audience engagement, the industry is returning to a model that prioritizes quality over quantity. This change, they believe, is cyclical and ultimately beneficial.

Finally, he expressed relief at being closer to retirement amid these industry shifts. They acknowledged the tougher landscape for newcomers, advising that while opportunities exist, the barriers to entry are higher. “I do look at young, even people that work on our staff, or if you talk to college kids or whatever, people who want to work in this business, you know, like the kids of friends of yours that contact you for help or whatever. I do kind of go like, boy, there’s not the pot of gold that there used to be.”

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Other tidbits from the interview include Ted directing episodes 2 and 9 in season 3. Ted notes it was important that Netflix had a Latino for the show’s lead and recommended watching Baby Reindeer.

Humphrey also revealed that the day after shooting finished for The Lincoln Lawyer season 3, Manuel Rulfo traveled to London and Thailand to star in the new Jurassic Park movie alongside Scarlett Johansson.

Regarding season 3, beyond confirming that filming had wrapped, there was no indication when the series would be back on our screens. Netflix recently omitted the series from their 2024 lineup when providing an update for the rest of the year at the Upfronts, suggesting a 2025 release is on the cards.

In addition to the podcast being on YouTube, you can also find it on Spotify and iTunes.

Are you looking forward to another season of The Lincoln Lawyer? Let us know in the comments.