Why You'll Be Lucky if You See a McDonald's McRib This Year

The legendary McRib is back. But don’t get too excited, because this year it will be even more difficult to find.

McDonald’s elusive sandwich returns to menus annually for a small window of time, but this time when the fast-food giant gave franchisees the option to decide whether or not they want to offer the tangy pork item, just over half said yes.

Only about 8,000 of the roughly 14,000 restaurants opted to carry the cult-favorite again, CNBC reports. It’s a huge drop from last year, where nearly 75 percent of locations added it to the menu for the limited time.

The momentous return of the famed boneless hoagie is long-awaited each season, and last year McDonald’s teamed up with former “Mythbusters” host Grant Imahara to show skeptics just how the creation is made.

"Is it real pork? Why is it that shape?" the company ponders in the video.

In the video a fast-food skeptic, who apparently tweeted a photo of a frozen McRib while noting how "disgusting" it looked, met up with Imahara for a tour of the pork processing plant where McRibs are born.

The video shows the broken-down meat ready for cooking and shaping, and at the end of the process, out pops a frozen McRib puck that's not dissimilar to the one Bellamy tweeted.

"It's different now that I know what actually goes inside of it," the one-time critic said.

The controversy only seems to help the sandwich’s popularity. Each year, McRib fans flock to social media rejoicing its comeback and posting pictures of their sightings.

This year, McDonald’s rolled out the “McRib locator” for fans, giving them the opportunity to see which locations in their area have been spotted with the McRib on the menu. To find, spot of report a McRib, go to mcriblocator.com. 

It's #McRib season! Shaving years off my life, bite by bite. pic.twitter.com/dST4rXg072 — Ryan (@DeuceSix) September 14, 2015

Happy birthday McRib❤️❤️ @alex_fraser2 pic.twitter.com/wPyNLqgyES — john ponte (@john_ponte__) September 14, 2015

#McRib, it's back! pic.twitter.com/ASnFABcnWG — McDonald's of PGH (@McD_GreaterPgh) September 14, 2015