Netflix is giving itself as many opportunities for Emmys as it can muster, splitting up several of its original comedies into two parts to maximize awards consideration. It has done so with The Ranch, and will do so with the final season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And now, according to EW, it will doing the same thing for the upcoming fifth season of Arrested Development.

The new season will reunite the show's original cast -- including Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Jessica Walter, Alia Shawkat, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, David Cross, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, and Jeffrey Tambor -- and is set to run for 16 episodes. But when it debuts on May 29th, only eight of them will be available for viewers, just two days before the end of the Emmy consideration window. The second half of the season should debut later this year.

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Image via Netflix

It's interesting that Netflix is willing to rush out the first half of these seasons in order to comply with Emmy eligibility, which seems to suggest a certain confidence in these new episodes, but it's a frustrating model for fans. Netflix's signature move has always been making its content fully available immediately for bingeing. To split it up because of awards (especially when the series weren't designed necessarily for a split) is ... an interesting choice, and pretty boldly just about chasing down some prestige tin. And really, for what?

Arrested Development Season 5 will land -- the first half of it, anyway -- on Netflix Tuesday, May 29th. For more of our recent coverage, check out these stories below:

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Image via Netflix
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Image via Netflix
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Image via Netflix