Hulu

**Hulu** is an American online subscriber-based video streaming service. It is majority owned by Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.

On July 20, 2019, at the San Diego Comic-Con, the cast and crew announced that *The Orville* would transfer to Hulu from 20th Century Studios. The Walt Disney Company had purchased Fox and its assets several months before.

Season 3 began releasing weekly on Hulu on June 2, 2022, carrying the title *The Orville: New Horizons*, with the episode "Electric Sheep" and concluding on August 4, 2022 with "Future Unknown."

Internationally, *The Orville* is made available via Disney+, as Hulu is not available outside the United States. On August 10, 2022, the complete series was also made available on Disney+ in the United States, while remaining on Hulu.

## Transfer to Hulu

In early 2016, Seth MacFarlane presented *The Orville* to Hulu and other digital streaming services like Amazon and Netflix, but turned them down when the company wanted to release all the episodes on a single day (as opposed to weekly serial releases typical of network television). Instead, MacFarlane turned to Fox where the show aired for its first two seasons.

At the close of Season 2, MacFarlane reflected upon the show's increasingly ambitious production schedule. After he determined that new episodes of The Orville would not air until 2020, the network and MacFarlane discussed a move to Hulu. According to Charlie Collier, CEO of 20th Century Studios, they mutually agreed - given the show's very late production schedule - to transfer rights to Hulu. And this time Hulu capitulated to MacFarlane's demand to air the episodes on a weekly basis rather than all at once.

Transferring to Hulu proved a judicious decision. Switching to a streaming service doubled The Orville's time to produce Season 3, with the promise of an additional ten minutes of airtime per episode. Ultimately, some episodes would clock in at approximately 70 minutes not including commercials, over 26 minutes than past installments of the series. Hulu additionally posts weekly "Inside" videos for the new episodes with behind-the-scenes information. The previous two seasons of the program are also available on Hulu.

Notably, while MacFarlane had turned down streaming services previously due to them being unwilling to present the episodes on a weekly basis, the episodes of *The Orville: New Horizons* release weekly. Since 2016, many streaming services have become more receptive to the idea of releasing episodes of television programs on a weekly basis, this, in fact, being the model used by Paramount+ for all *Star Trek* series released on the platform, such as *Star Trek: Discovery* and *Star Trek: Picard*.

Although the move to streaming meant that more "adult content" could be allowed, Seth MacFarlane was reluctant to go too far. In an interview following Season 3, he stated that there was a take that J. Lee did in *Future Unknown* as John LaMarr where he said "What the f–k you all looking at?" which appeared in the broadcast version as "What the hell you all looking at?" While he had considered fighting for the original take, he ultimately felt that "This isn’t *Family Guy*,” this is a show that people should be able to watch with their kids. I think “s–t” is about as far as we can go." He further stated that it wasn't a battle he wanted to fight, particularly with those who have supported his show.

## External links

* Hulu official site
* *The Orville* on Hulu
* Hulu on Wikipedia

## References

1. ↑ Johnson, Michael (June 2, 2022). The Orville: New Horizons Season 3 Episode 1 Review – Electric Sheep. Den of Geek. Retrieved on June 15, 2022.
2. ↑ Seth MacFarlane in "Seth MacFarlane Discusses “The Orville,” “Star Trek,” and the Struggle to Make Science Fiction Funny" by Manu Saadia. *The New Yorker*. Sept. 9, 2017.
3. ↑ Petski, Denise. "‘The Orville’ Moves To Hulu From Fox For Season 3 In 2020". *Deadline*. July 20, 2019.
4. ↑ Franklin, Garth. "FOX Chief Talks “Orville” Shift To Hulu". *Dark Horizons*. Aug. 9, 2019.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sun - Main Stage | NYCC 2019 | SYFY WIRE. SyFy Wire. Oct. 6, 2019.
6. ↑ Armstrong, Vanessa (June 2, 2022). Seth MacFarlane Reveals Why 'The Orville' Premiere Revisits a Major Season 2 Episode. SyFy Wire. Retrieved on June 15, 2022.
7. ↑ Mitovich, Matt (August 10, 2022). *The Orville*'s Seth MacFarlane Explains Drama-Free Finale — And Why the Hulu Series' First F-Bomb Was Defused. TV Line. Retrieved on August 13, 2022.