At the ongoing National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurtwitz and Netflix chief Ted Sarandos confirmed what we already knew: Season four will premiere exclusively on Netflix Instant Viewing sometime next year. But they also announced something that had not yet been discussed: All 10 episodes of the season will be released simultaneously.

This has always been Netflix’s business model, but it is a bit different when the shows have already aired on traditional cable. Netflix’s first “original” series, Lilyhammer, appeared all at once, but they did not produce it. Instead, it originally aired on Norwegian TV and they bought the rights.

Rabid fans of Arrested Development, which has gained in popularity after going off the air and is reportedly headed towards a feature film, will undoubtedly digest all 10 episodes in one sitting (and then probably watch them a couple more times). I’ve certainly taken in entire seasons of great shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men over a single weekend, and I know how gratifying this experience can be. But with so much of a lead-up to Arrested Development‘s re-surfacing, one wonders if exhausting every episode of the new season at once will prove anticlimactic. There’s something to be said for anticipating a new episode of a series every week.

Creator Hurwitz also said that, while he had initially planned to change the structure of the show in the new season (intimately focusing on a character per episode), it’s shaping up to be just like it always has been.

Source: Vulture, where even more juicy details are posted (click over!)