As countless people noticed over the weekend, 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way did not air on Sunday, February 12.
Some fans knew that this was coming.
Others discovered it to their horror. A few even chalked it up to (yet another) Discovery Plus issue.
What happened? When is 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way Season 4 returning?
Sunday evening, a major American sporting event took place. This is called the Superbowl.
We’re not sure why someone put a notoriously dangerous sporting event before and after a legendary Rihanna performance, but it is what it is.
Because a baffling volume of Americans watch this event every year, many television shows have to get creative with their airing schedules to avoid an unwanted ratings dip.
Some shows, like HBO’s fantastic The Last of Us series, modified their schedules to air early — releasing what would normally be a Sunday night episode on Friday.
(I hear that The Last of Us is excellent but have not watched it myself; watching someone else play the game had me sobbing, so I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to watch the show)
90 Day Fiance: The Other Way chose a different route for Season 4, Episode 3: just holding off for a week.
This means that viewers are going an almost unprecedented two weeks without a new episode.
(We say “almost” unprecedented because, you know, they just did this two months ago — skipping December 25, a date on which many viewers celebrate the Christian holiday, Christmas)
This hiatus fortnight is taking viewers by surprise. Some viewers, anyway. After all, with more than a dozen spinoffs, this show is basically always on. Often with more than one series running in the same week.
Of course, this time, it’s a bit awkward. We are only two episodes into Season 4.
This means that viewers are barely getting to know the new cast members.
Some haven’t even received an introduction yet. And, in the case of Nicole Sherbiny and Mahmoud Elsherbiny, we literally just met them on the last episode.
Nicole began to share her love story about Mahmoud during the second episode. It was her introductory debut.
She met Mahmoud by chance while on a spiritual journey of Egypt. The thirst was immediate. They ended up marrying.
When Episode 3 airs on February 19, Nicole will share more — including how their marriage involved crashing someone else’s wedding, seemingly to appease Mahmoud’s family who did not consider a legal wedding to be sufficient.
Season 4 has received praise from viewers for a long-overdue dose of LGBTQ+ representation.
To the show’s (partial) credit, they have always been reasonably good about including racial diversity. It sort of goes with the show’s premise, but it’s has helped the series to stand out from TLC’s usual programming of white, Christian families who often lead counter-cultural or even anachronistic lifestyles.
Still, the show has not always done a good job of discouraging racist and xenophobic reactions from viewers. The misogyny has been even worse. But it appears that production is making an effort.
Kris and Jeymi are a same-sex couple. Despite the volume of seasons and spinoffs, they are only the third same-sex couple on a “major” spinoff in this franchise.
Meanwhile, Gabriel and Isabel are a different form of representation — because Gabe is transgender.
Thus far, the show is not giving him or Isabel any sort of a slanted edit — and Gabriel is a popular pick for fan-favorite on Season 4 thus far.
We just have a few days to go, really, before Episode 3 airs.
It is likely that the show will introduce the couple with the greatest age gap in franchise history very soon. Possibly on Sunday, if we can trust the teasers.
We don’t know when the show’s next hiatus will be. But when it happens, we don’t need to panic.
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