'Glee' may have a few less musical numbers this season

"Glee" may have a few less musical numbers this season, says show co-creator Ian Brennan, and if fans hear any rumours about which songs are being included, it's best to ignore them.

Kings of Leon recently caused a bit of a stir when lead singer Caleb Followill was quoted as saying the band turned down a chance to have a song appear on "Glee."

That news surprised Brennan, since he said no such offer was made to the rockers.

"The Kings of Leon thing I didn't really understand because we didn't approach them, I don't know where that came from," Brennan said in a conference call Thursday.

"That's sort of the problem with the show now, literally journalists ask everyone now, 'Would you like to be on 'Glee'? And then the rumour mill starts.

"I would say probably 80 per cent of the people who you heard are going to be on 'Glee' is probably news to us."

The much-loved musical show kicks off its second season on Tuesday, on Global at 8 p.m. ET/PT, and Brennan said fans -- known as Gleeks -- should expect a little less music and a little more story.

"This season we're going to err on doing slightly fewer songs," he said.

"I think the most songs we ever did was in the Madonna episode (in the first season), which is sort of its own fantastical thing in and of itself, and I think that probably had nine or 10 songs -- and you just can't do that every episode."

He said the writers are now aiming at a ballpark of five to eight songs per episode, which he called "sort of healthy for the show."

"My hope is a viewer doesn't notice (and say), 'Oh there's a lot of songs this episode,' or 'There's not very much.' It should be organic to the story and that's when our episodes work the best," he said.

There are some high-profile guests and songs lined up for the second season -- "secret weapons," Brennan called them -- but he wouldn't be specific. It's already been announced that the first episode will include a singalong of "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, and the introduction of a new character played by pop star Charice. John Stamos will guest star in the second episode.

Brennan was asked about the rumours that Susan Boyle might be appearing this season but didn't touch the question.

Brennan said he has no worries about running out of story ideas as the show moves forward since he has such a strong cast of characters to work with.

"As we come back there's a lot of Brittany and Santana, and Will and Emma," he hinted.

"Harry Shum Jr.'s character (Mike Chang, a football player interested in the glee club), we're going to have more stuff with him. And even starting in the first episode, right when we come back, we sort of introduce different storylines. The Will and Sue dynamic has sort of been thrown on its head.

"We've got a lot of options ahead of us."

source