Louis C.K.’s Horace and Pete was one of the most unusual and intriguing web projects of 2016. After shooting the barroom comedy with an improvisational, off-the-cuff feel, C.K. released it on his website without promoting it at all. Rather than partnering with a distributor, the stand-up comedian made individual episodes available for a la carte purchase, with the show’s ten installments ranging in price from $2-5.
Now, eight months after he employed that unusual strategy, C.K. appears ready to release Horace and Pete in a more conventional manner. At the New Yorker Festival, he hinted that he has made a deal with Hulu to distribute the show, though he declined to provide additional details.
During the Festival, C.K. said Horace and Pete would be “going on a service,” and he then admitted that Hulu would be the show’s streaming video partner. “I have no idea if I have the right to say that,” he noted. “Don’t tell anyone.” Unfortunately for him, the cat’s out of the bag now — though Hulu didn’t confirm a deal with the Louie star after being contacted by The Hollywood Reporter.
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A trip to Hulu would give Horace and Pete a chance to reach viewers who may have balked at the hefty $31 price tag the show’s complete first season goes for on C.K.’s website. The streaming video platform could also provide Horace and Pete with the pre-release promotion it never received the first time around. While that decision matched C.K.’s creative vision, it hurt the comedian’s bottom line. Two months after the show’s initial launch, C.K. noted that he had failed to recoup its production costs, though at the New Yorker Festival, he shared that he has since made back enough money to pay actors Alan Alda and Steve Buscemi, who “own a big chunk of the show.”
More details about the deal between C.K. and Hulu — should it ever materialize — will be available either when the streaming platform makes an official announcement or when the comedian has his next slip of the tongue.
