Hulu gave an overview of its aggressive programming slate of upcoming original series and exclusive never-before-released-in-the US television properties at the company’s Digital Content NewFront event in New York City in April. Today, the online destination for on-demand premium content – including television shows, movies, and those aforementioned original series – got more specific about what types of entertainment properties it will release in the near future.
This summer, beginning on June 4th, Hulu will premiere no less than three original series and seven popular programs from somewhere across the pond.
“In an on-demand world, viewers are going to actively choose to watch TV shows that they really love. At Hulu, we want to offer exclusive shows and make original TV programming that speaks to a passionate group of fans. Because today, you don’t have to settle for watching something mildly entertaining,” said Andy Forssell, senior vice president of content for Hulu. “We are proud of our summer line-up of Hulu Original Series and Exclusives, and we look forward to delighting our users.”
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Those originals and exclusives include:
Hulu Original Series
- Spoilers – Premieres: June 4, 2012 – Kevin Smith’s movie “Revue” is a multi-act film extravaganza mixes lively group chats, interviews with movie and pop culture icons and animated shorts. Each week, Kevin, special guests and movie lovers passionately sound off on the year’s most anticipated summer blockbusters, gushing over their favorite scenes and debating the details frame by frame. The series is produced by SModCo.
- Up To Speed – Premieres: August 2012 – A travel show about the road less traveled, this new travel series was created by filmmaker Richard Linklater (Bernie, Dazed and Confused) and represents his first foray into episodic TV storytelling. Each week Up to Speed follows tour guide, historian and flaneur Timothy “Speed” Levitch (The Cruise) as he visits the monumentally-ignored monuments of America’s cities, from the shoe gardens of San Francisco to the luckiest subway grate in New York City. The series is produced by Cinetic Media.
- We Got Next – Premieres: August 2012 – A bro-mantic Comedy, We Got Next is a raunchy, sarcastic and out-of-bounds half-hour show about a pick-up basketball team of four guys who should never have been friends in the first place. Each week, the guys’ courtside banter consistently escalates into a run of terrible advice and poor decision-making. Cast includes Paul Bartholomew (Paul The Male Matchmaker), Lance Barber (Big Bang Theory), Bumper Robinson (The Game) and Bill Fagerbakke (Coach).
Hulu Exclusives
- Rev. – Premieres: June 3, 2012 – Premieres: June 3, 2012 – Meet The Rev. Adam Smallbone. From a sleepy, rural parish, the newly promoted vicar has moved to the busy, inner-city world of St. Saviour’s in East London. It’s a world in which he has little experience, and it shows. It really shows. “Rev.” is a contemporary sitcom about the enormous daily frustrations and moral conflicts of an inner-city vicar. Cast includes Tom Hollander (Pirates of the Caribbean), Olivia Colman, Steve Evets, Miles Jupp, Lucy Liemann, Simon McBurney and Ellen Thomas.
- The Yard – Premieres: June 7, 2012 – A mockumentary miniseries that originally aired on HBO Canada, The Yard offers a bizarre juxtaposition of two rival cliques of elementary school children, where tension develops much like the quintessential crime-family thriller. The show has comically been referred to by Canadian television critics as “The Wire and The Sopranos with kids.”
- Derren Brown: Inside Your Mind – Premieres: July 7, 2012 – Derren Brown is a performer like none other in the world. He uses psychology, magic, showmanship and suggestion to achieve things that for anyone else would be impossible. In the U.K., he is multi-award winning performer and has done a variety of huge and baffling stunts including predicting the national lottery and playing Russian roulette on live TV. Brown brings his elaborate feats to U.S. audiences in this specially shot compilation. His technique challenges traditional preconceptions of magic in the grand tradition of Houdini and modern performers such as Penn & Teller, David Blaine and Criss Angel.
- The Booth at the End (Season 2) – Premieres: July 2012 – Xander Berkeley, best known for his roles as “George Mason” in FOX’s 24 and “Percy” in The CW’s Nikita, stars as an enigmatic man occupying the corner booth of a diner. He possesses the power to grant desires, contingent upon recipients performing mysterious tasks. This half-hour psychological thriller begs the question: “How far would you go to get what you want?”
- Pramface – Premieres: July 19, 2012 – Jamie and Laura are two young, free and single teenagers who, after hooking up at a party, soon find they have a very big complication on their hands. Laura is pregnant. So even though they barely know each other, they now have one thing in common – and it’s getting bigger. “Pramface” brings humor and heart to a tricky subject, following these two unexpected parents-to-be as they try, and frequently fail, to negotiate family, sex and what happens once nine months is up…
- The Promise – Premieres: August 11, 2012 – With nearly a decade of extensive field research on the part of award-winning writer and director Peter Kosminsky, The Promise is a BAFTA-nominated, four-part political thriller and love story. The serial drama examines the origins of the Middle East conflict in events that took place under British rule sixty years ago. The bold and honest series cuts between the life of Erin, an 18-year old Londoner in present day Israel and Gaza, and that of her military grandfather who was part of the British peace-keeping force in Palestine at the end of the second World War.
- Little Mosque – Premieres: June 28, 2012 – A light-hearted and comedic fish-out-of-water tale about a small Muslim community that rents the parish hall of a small town church to use as a mosque. The multi award-winning, half-hour series features a cast of both Muslims and non-Muslims in storylines that the New York Times says “explore the funny side of an often misunderstood life.”
Hulu will add the above series to its growing list of original and exclusive programming, which already includes, but is not limited to, the politically-inclined dramedy Battleground and Morgan Spurlock‘s A Day in the Life. And expect the length of that list of original and exclusive programming to continue to grow at a rapid clip.
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said he plans to spend over half-a-billion dollars on original and exclusive programming for the site in 2012 alone. There’s no word on how much all of the above series cost to make and/or acquire, but I’m sure he still has a lot of cash to spend. Stay tuned.
