Here’s Why ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Season 5 Is Only 5 Episodes

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is back for another season of MomTok drama! And it’s going to take up a lot less of your time than previous seasons. Turns out the fifth season of Mormon Wives—which is streaming on Hulu as of today, September 10, is only five episodes. Season 1 was eight episodes, Seasons 2 and 3 were 11 episodes each, and Season 4 was 10 episodes, so this is definitely a change.

So…why the abridged season? As The Los Angeles Times notes, production was paused on the show and cameras went down amid the alleged domestic violence incident between Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen.

Back in March, TMZ reported that production on the reality show had “hit an unexpected pause” and that the situation was “intense enough that filming couldn’t continue as planned.” Mikayla Matthews then confirmed, “It was a decision that all us girls came up with and agreed on. We didn’t feel comfortable filming with everything that was happening.”

An insider then told People that “The girls are very overwhelmed. They all banded together and they don’t want to come back right now. They were just getting tired of Taylor, honestly. [...] They kind of all decided, as a unit, that they're taking the production pause, that they don't want to film right now. I don’t think they care about her really right now. They're just kind of like, ‘We’re done for right now.’”

Filming on the show eventually resumed in May for confessional interviews, but Season 5 remained truncated—hence it only having five eps.