During today’s The Orville panel at San Diego Comic-Con, show creator and star Seth MacFarlane made big news, announcing the show is hopping from the Fox Broadcasting Network to the Hulu streaming service.
The move is a surprise, as Fox had already announced a third season renewal for The Orville in May. According to MacFarlane, moving to Hulu is something he felt would be best for the show, allowing it more flexibility. No date was given for the premiere of the third season, but sources tell TrekMovie it is targeted for the fall of 2020, with production set to start this fall. The third season is expected to run 10-13 episodes and will be released on a weekly basis, which is traditional for most of Hulu’s original series, like The Handmaid’s Tale.
The Orville cast for season two
This move can be seen as another facet of how things have been shifting following Disney’s acquisition of Fox Studios, which owns The Orville. In May of this year, Disney took over complete control of Hulu, so having The Orville on Hulu can benefit the show, as it brings production and distribution all within the Disney family. Even though Disney purchased Fox Studios from the Fox Corporation, the Fox Broadcasting Company is still a separate entity and remains part of the Fox parent company.
Hulu is seen as a key part of Disney’s strategy, offering more adult-oriented entertainment alongside their upcoming Disney Plus streaming service, which will launch in November. This too could also benefit MacFarlane and The Orville team, giving them more flexibility in the kinds of stories they can tell.
The Orville is now part of Disney, who also control Hulu
The Hulu subscription service comes standard on most smart TVs and streaming devices, and is also available on mobile devices and most gaming devices. Subscriptions to Hulu costs $5.99 per month or $11.99 for the ad-free version.
NOTE: The move to Hulu in the USA will likely not impact how The Orville is broadcast overseas.
https://twitter.com/SethMacFarlane/status/1152768696445624321
This is a developing story and TrekMovie will have more details about the future of The Orville and other news from the panel coming up soon, so stay tuned.
Neat. Now I can watch it without commercials.
Lol isn’t Hulu the one where you pay and still watch ads?
LOL yes, it is.
There’s an option to pay more to have no ads.
Yeah, that’s the subscription I have.
There are two levels of paid Hulu subscriptions, a $6/month level with ads and a $12/month level without.
Seasons 1 and 2 were on Hulu also the day after they aired on the broadcast network. And commercial free if you payed for that Hulu package.
I was watching it without commercials already. There is a really cool device called a DVR.
Ah yes, Discovery is cancelled midway through season 1, but Orville is doing BETTER THAN EVER as it is pulled from television and moved to a literal 3rd-rate streaming service.
NOTE: this is not a criticism of Orville, but of channels like Midnight’s Edge and Nerderotic
Actually in Disney’s new streaming plans Hulu is where anything more adult goes. Disney+ is where family friendly stuff goes, anything else goes to Hulu. So it’s not really “third rate” in their new vision.
It is literally the third highest rated streaming service, behind Netflix and Amazon. That was what I was referring to.
That doesn’t make it “third rate.” Third rate, is a derogatory term meaning it’s not even in the same league as the others. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/third-rate
As you stated in your reply it’s actually quite a big player in US streaming.
Calm yourself– it was a play on words.
I get it, Afterburn. And I liked it! Clever.
I cut Hulu loose when they removed the Roseanne revival. I guess they’ve suffered without me long enough. I’m going to have to get the service back for Orville….because I loved it. I had kind of hoped that CBS-AA would pick up The Orville, for the natural marriage with all things Star Trek. I was wrong about the streaming platform but feel like I predicted it ending up on a platform. I’m glad for the move. I thing it bodes well for the show’s longevity. Broadcast is dead. Better off being on the thirdiest of third rate streaming platforms than to be on Broadcast TV. I’ll bet we see a marked improvement in the quality of the show.
Great word play!
Not a successful one.
Seems you are wrong, Bernadette.
Honestly I would have never heard of Midnight’s Edge, if people don’t mention that youtube channel all the time on all kinds of sites. Why promote it, because you kind of do. Mentioning youtube guys you don’t like everywhere will just give the people more clicks.
I’m not really concerned with them getting more or less clicks. I have no ill will towards them, wish them to go out of business or be harmed in anyway, just like to laugh at them.
Agreed. Me too! It would be like if The CW asked people to pay. LOL
It gives them something to feel superior to. Which is probably why I’m typing this comment, now that I think about it. Oh, well; post!
Third, not third rate.
It’s a smart move on Disney’s part. It expands their slate of original content on Hulu by offering an established series.
I doubt this was done to help Hulu. Orville has been struggling a bit in the ratings department, and with the recent merger, they most likely felt it would do better on streaming than on broadcast (and they’re likely correct). Brining it’s fanbase to hulu, and opening a slot for something better on broadcast– win/win. In that sense it is indeed a smart move.
But this narrative that Orville is a runaway success and Discovery is failing is nonsense, and this move proves that. If Orville was doing really very well, they would not have moved it. At best, they’d have created a spin-off for Hulu, as CBS did with The Good Fight and Young Sheldon.
Young Sheldon is a spin-off but it’s a CBS original, not an All Access original.
And the move does benefit Hulu. There’s an established fan base who will follow the show to Hulu who don’t currently subscribe to Hulu. Original content is what’s driving these services and Hulu needs to expand their original content offerings.
I’m not going to follow it to Hulu. If it stayed on FOX I would have still checked out season three. Now if I see it it will be through Netflix about a year after season 3 streams. That is where I saw season 1 of The Handmaid’s Tale. (Not nearly as good as some would lead you to believe, BTW. In fact, one scene near the end of the first season was so absurd I was literally laughing so hard I had to pause.)
Denny C,
And, THE GOOD FIGHT’s 1st season, which preceded Trek in streaming, is currently being broadcast Sundays, over the air, on the CBS network, proving that airing 1st on a stream in no way guarantees that a season will never find a broadcast slot on networks such as ABC or FOX.
Funny thing is, it was already on Hulu the day after it aired on Fox. It just wasn’t exclusively on Hulu. I don’t think removing a distribution platform without adding a new one is a recipe for increased ratings.
Maybe they are hoping new Hulu subscribers will pay more than the loss in advertisers. I’m not one of them though because I was already subscribing to Hulu.
You clearly don’t understand the points that Midnight’s Edge and Nerdrotic make. And Discovery wasn’t cancelled midwy through season 1 adding to you lack of understanding.
M0R0N ALERT.
I do have a Hulu subscription but rarely use it. Guess now I have a reason.
I got it because it was on promotion for .99/month for a year over the holidays, and I think i’ve watched maybe 3 hours of content since. It’s a terrible service– bad content, awful UI, worse control.
Sounds like a good fit for that terrible show.
I primarily use the commercial free Hulu package in place of broadcast shows from ABC, NBC, and FOX. Not for the Hulu Originals which are usually not worthwhile.
Although Apollo 11 (documentary) was just released on Hulu. That was good.
Dude, the Apollo 11 doc has been airing free on CNN for the past week.
I was about to mention that.
To be fair, there isn’t a streaming service yet that has decent UI or control.
Also: Veronica Mars
It’s telling that until The Orville, Veronica “Mars” was the closest thing to a space sf TV show on that network (LOL), which I find to be on the level of The CW.
No thanks
Why were you continually throwing your money away then, Ensign Ricky?
Hulu, no way. Count me as a former viewer.
Personally I don’t care where it will air as long as the series is still made. I really loved season 2. A big improvement over season 1 and I already liked that one, too.
Funny how people are now saying “I don’t care if it airs on streaming!” yet there are still people screaming about Trek being on CBSAA. Not picking on you specifically (because I don’t know how you felt/feel about Trek streaming) but I doubt Orville fans will be boycotting it because it’s on a streaming channel, as they claim to be doing with Discovery.
Yep. Pots calling kettles black.
“Funny how people are now saying “I don’t care if it airs on streaming!” yet there are still people screaming about Trek being on CBSAA.”
Yeah, it’s funny that different people have different opinions. That is sooo funny
As you well know, he was referring to the hypocrisy shown here by some fans, not their opinions.
Nice try…well, not really.
For me it depends on where it streams. If the Orville was on CBS:AA I would complain about that one too because CBS:AA doesn’t have much outside of Star Trek that I want to watch.
For almost the same price Hulu has shows from NBC, ABC, and FOX. All combined Hulu has almost two dozen shows I like to watch throughout the year.
Do you work for hulu?
Besides Handmaid’s Tale, which has kind of derailed in Season 3, everything else is kind of like CW-level or network reject stuff. No thanks.
Hulu has maybe one or two shows i’d ever watch. A terrible selection of content in comparison to Netflix and Amazon. Certainly better than CBSAA, but i’d wager most Orville fans will have no complaints subscribing to Hulu just to watch the series.
Just as many Trek fans have no problem paying $6 for CBSAA for Discovery, Picard, Short Treks, and the like.
It’s all about those idi0t “fans” early on who said “I’d never pay for Star Trek!” but are now making excuses and justifications for having to pay for Orville.
“For almost the same price Hulu has shows from NBC, ABC, and FOX. All combined Hulu has almost two dozen shows I like to watch throughout the year.”
And for $0/mo I can bring those shows to my TV via a digital antenna.
Something obviously happened here … The show was renewed by Fox the TV Network for a 3rd Season, and by moving to Hulu, this means it was no longer renewed by Fox. The fate of the show was in the hands of Fox TV until they decided they no longer wanted it.
It means the new Disney bosses had different ideas of where it best fit. It’s not really ominous, it’s part and parcel with the merger.
We don’t really know anything for a fact– it’s all educated speculation. You are probably right however, that they felt it fit better on Hulu. Though as I said above, if it was a big ratings winner, they’d probably have kept it on the Fox schedule.
It certainly well get far fewer viewers on Hulu. But using the same logic (that streaming is the realm of niche shows that don’t draw larger audiences), conversely if Discovery was such a huge boom for CBS we would be seeing it move to the over the air network.
I think it is more likely that FOX wanted it out, period, but the new bosses said, “keep it,” and then decided to move it over to Hulu. If FOX were originally loving it, they wouldn’t take as long as they did to make the renewal.
Yep. It was on the bubble for a long time. I never got the impression they were happy to renew it, and just as it was with the show’s creation, I have every belief it was renewed to keep MacFarlane (who has a long and distinguished relationship with FOX) happy.
They didn’t want MacFarlane run away to Netflix, so they decided to indulge him in his ego trip.
The show is produced by 20th Century Fox Television which is now owned by Disney. Disney wanted it, negotiated with FOX and, boom, off to Hulu it goes.
Again, I’m not sure how you can say that with certainty, unless it was officially announced that that’s what happened. Lots of scenarios that could have found it moved– new Disney shows they felt worked best on Fox, and needed to move something off the schedule, for example.
Besides, Disney doesn’t need to negotiate with Fox, they can just take it now.
You can’t just pull a show that you’re producing for another network unless you’re willing to trigger a lawsuit and violate whatever terms are currently in place.
I suspect that FOX was willing to let it go since they can pour the resources they would have put into The Orville into something else.
…It’s not another network. It’s Fox, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.
Afterburn,
Actually, New FOX retained ownership of the over-the-air broadcast FOX network so it’s a bit more complicated than that:
https://deadline.com/2018/08/new-fox-plans-independent-studios-program-ownership-tca-dana-walden-gary-newman-1202438665/
Disney doesn’t want it. Fox is just using Hulu as a dumping ground for a show they don’t want anymore. It’s not the first time they did this.
Disney owns a majority stake in Hulu, so they’re dumping it on … themselves?
Clearly, they think it will make more money for them on Hulu than on Fox. This is not complicated.
The retail store Marshalls dumps all the merchandise that don’t sell to their outlet stores. Same principle.
Fox would routinely dump unwanted shows to friday night. Hulu is the new Friday night.
I hate agreeing with A34, but he’s right. On FOX, Orville will never be anything but a second tier show with mediocre ratings and a high budget. On Hulu, it is a direct revenue generator, driving subscriber rates with a loyal fanbase. Smart move.
I don’t see the logic of dumping it to Hulu to drive revenue. It’s going to get far fewer viewers on that platform than over the air. Many viewers will make the move to Hulu with it but the majority probably won’t. Unless production costs take a dive or Disney is willing to take the hit just so Hulu can have some content, the move really doesn’t bode well for the future of the show.
Fox has a 3 season deal with MacFarlane, they couldn’t cancel it so dumping it off to Hulu is the next best thing. I doubt the show will see a season 4.
MacFarlane said today that his total workload and his vision of how to properly produce The Orville meant that season 3 would not be ready for broadcast until well after mid-season. He didn’t say, but events would seem to imply, that FOX was not interested in it as a summer show or keeping it off the air until fall or winter 2020. Disney saw value in moving it to Hulu and/or thought it would be a good way to keep MacFarlane happy with the new management at his home studio. FOX was approached about letting Disney out of the third season contract and since they couldn’t get season 3 when they wanted it, FOX agreed; which helps keep them in MacFarlane’s good graces. Family Guy getting moved to Hulu or sold to TBS to join American Dad after the coming season would open a hole in their Sunday night programming block. Especially if Disney decided to move The Simpsons elsewhere at the same time in retaliation. FOX now finds themselves in the position of having to keep production studios happy instead of the studios having to keep them happy, like they did before the Disney sale.
I don’t think you quite understand here. Fox is now owned by Disney. Disney owns Hulu and took full control earlier this year (per the article).
Though I’m really annoyed by this move (I don’t like being forced into subscriptions to services I don’t have for the sake of a single show), they’re quite clearly trying to do what CBS did with ST: Discovery with their streaming platform. Discovery single-handedly increased CBS All-Access subscriptions by a noticable amount.
The fact that Disney is moving Orville over to Hulu in this way (after Fox had already renewed them) is a great sign for the show itself since they clearly see it as a possible anchor ala Discovery to get them more subscriptions. This is obviously just another part of their incoming strategy to move into the streaming market along with Disney+. This is simply a sideways re-positioning of a Disney property from one distribution channel to another in order to help generate growth in a new area (streaming) that’s inevitably going to become a strong focus for Disney over the coming years.
This was not some decision made in a bubble by whatever execs remain within Fox Studios. The show is still renewed just the same, but the reality is that they now work for the Disney conglomerate, not simply Fox. This is just Disney trying to better leverage and position their new properties across their growing and varied landscape.
Good analysis. Everyone please read this one, before commenting.
One problem with part of that reasoning… The Orville is NOT Star Trek. The Orville isn’t going to anchor anything. Handmaid’s Tale gets them more press than The Orville ever will.
I believe I watched only the pilot episode on FOX if I recall accurately. I regularly watch the show on HULU, and have purchased the digital episodes from Amazon and VUDU. And yes, I have the DVD and the comic book. Serious Orville fan here.
Disney now has a controlling interest in FOX and HULU. Considering The Orville’s undoubtedly large budget, and its less than stellar ratings numbers, I wonder if FOX was starting to regard the show as financially unworkable and was only too happy to hand it over to HULU. Either that, or the new Disney Overlords reached out their talons and grabbed Orville as a better fit for HULU…
So, can someone please check how this is going to impact Canada, I need to know if I have to just switch the PVR to City TV or if I’ll be looking at other methods
I knew FOX would cancel it. Putting it on Hulu is a mercy killing.
Take you trolling elsewhere.
Fox has done this before to other shows. Dumping it on Hulu isn’t a good thing.
I respectfully doubt it. Enough said.
He might have a point though. Aside from Fringe and the X-Files has there been a single sci-fi show on Fox that lasted more than two seasons? Firefly, Terra Nova, Almost Human, Alcatraz, Tru Calling, The Tick, John Doe, Space: Above and Beyond, etc.
The huge selection makes one think FOX must love sci-fi, but the fact that so many are canceled after one or two seasons makes you wonder if the shows are somehow being sabotaged.
While I get what you’re saying, some of the shows you’re mentioning are 20-25 years old. Not really relevant.
The funny thing is one show that Fox showed great faith in after dismal first two season numbers was The X-Files. BTW… Since you included The Tick I think it fair to include Gotham in that list. Which ran for what, 5 seasons?
Well…this just about guarantees that I’ll wait for the blu- ray to come out. I already pay for CBSAA. I have DirecTV too which costs an “arm and a leg”. I’m not paying for two streaming services. This is getting too pricey.
The cost of the full season on HULU will be more costly than just buying the set. I love the show but it can wait. Besides what else does HULU have to interest me? Not much or at least nothing I haven’t seen already.
I hope enough people follow the show to HULU keep it on but my support will be with video releases from here on I’m thinking. Unless they have a trial I can cancel and just binge the 3rd season.
Hey Mr. Vulcan, Fox doesn’t do BluRay, but now that it’s on Hulu exclusively, perhaps you’ll be able to get it.
Would definitely be a pro on the side of the move, especially given what they’re putting into Vfx.
Man, I hope Disney doesn’t stop Hulu from Blu-Raying their stuff. That’s the only way I’ll be able to watch new ORVILLE, and that’s how I got HANDMAID season1, as a two buck blu at a pawnshop (still waiting to luck into a similar deal on THE LOOMING TOWER — I got to see the first three eps and was enthralled by the excellent performances and execution, but now over a year later, I’m still trying to find the blu-ray of that for less than a sawbill.)
Here too. I pay for DTV but the package I get isn’t overly expensive. In fact it’s about $20-$30 less than their competition. But I only pay for CBS when Trek is on (two months so far this year), I pay for a Netflix account and piggy back on my friend’s Netflix streaming account. Hulu stuff does make it to Netflix a year after it premiers. That’s how I saw The Handmaid’s Tale. So no reason to pay for Hulu since it will eventually make it to Netflix anyway. The real pisser is Amazon. There are a few things I’d like to see there but I don’t want to keep adding more services. And Amazon does not share their content with ANYONE.
Cripes! Refused to get CBS on demand because I thought it was a rubbish move and now this- I freaking LOVE The Orville but am already paying to much for tv as is. I am gutted by this.
I applaud you for your consistency. I see a lot of Orville fans justifying the move to Hulu. I think a move to streaming from network (unlike DSC which was built for CBSAA) is never a good thing for the audience, even if it ultimately is a good move for the business. That said, it can be a very good thing for the series, as a show on the bubble: this could lead to more seasons being created than if it had stayed on network TV.
Too bad. Didn’t have much hope for Disney’s stewardship of this property. Since to me Hulu is only something Cloud William might have said, I’ll likely miss the show.
Sprint offers Hulu free with their unlimited plans…the commercial one at a value of $5.99/month
I have an unlimited data plan with Sprint. I saw this comment and tried downloading the Hulu app and it asked me if I wanted to start a free trial. So, how do I get Hulu for free, instead of signing up for a free trial?
It’s also offered with a Spotify account.
omg this is funny… orville lovers and std haters always tossed in how they would never pay for star trek (even though they pay for trek movies since 1980 and trek vhs’s and dvds and blu rays and comics and toys etc) BUT NEVER STREAMING and now the friggin’ show they point to as their savior is streaming as well… WITH COMMERCIALS… it’s just really really nerdastically funny…
Yep. Crow is being served for dinner folks!
Man, this sucks.
Well, I’m not getting another subscription service just to watch The Orville. The next season is over a year away, anyway. I’ll have largely forgotten about it by then. I’ve got queues filled with great stuff that I haven’t even gotten to yet. The subscription service mayhem is getting to be as costly as cable TV. I’m not doing it. The line must be drawn HERE! This far, no farther!
And, while I’m at it, Disney is out of control. They do theme parks and children’s movies and shows very well, and they should stick to that. I don’t see any good coming from their creeping subsumption of the entertainment industry.
Just Curious. So you never tried just paying for one month of a service and binge watching the season, then cancelling? That’s what a ton of people do, my friend. You don’t have to pay continuously. This ain’t rocket science. :-)
Methuselah
You’re right, I could do that. And maybe I will. I just tend not to because then I have to remember to cancel it, and it’s just another thing to have to remember to do, so I don’t bother. I’ve been meaning to do that with YouTube Red for Cobra Kai, and I still haven’t gotten around to it. I’m a creature of habit, you see.
Jesus Christ, this board.
Bryant, what is the problem with this discussion here between Cy and Meth? I think it’s a wonderful back and forth between a fan who has an issue, and a fellow fan who is trying to help him. My god, this board…
Cy, when I do stuff like this, I cancel as soon as I subscribe– when you subscribe on say January 1, and immediately cancel, it usually doesn’t shut the service it right away, it will say something like “We’re sorry to see you go. You’ll still receive the benefits of your subscription until January 31.”
My issue with doing this though is that I am not one to sit down and binge in one weekend. I like watching an episode or two at a time, and if life gets in the way and I never finish, then I have to renew for a second month.
Afterburn
That’s another issue. Subscribing for a month and then cancelling, it feels a bit like homework trying to cram in all the episodes before my service ends. It’s not a huge deal, it’s just multiply this issue times every show I might want to see that’s on CBAA or YouTube Red or Hulu or HBO Go or. . . subscribing, cancelling and then having to binge-watch shows before the service ends is not a sustainable way for me to enjoy my audiovisual entertainment. So, I pick an easy, consistent way of doing things: I subscribe to my regular services, leave them on auto-pay, and I know they’re there whenever I want to watch/read/use them. Shows that aren’t provided by my services I forget about. Someday, they’ll become available and I’ll catch up. In the meantime, I’ve got plenty of other stuff to catch up on. In marketing terms, what The Orville’s move to Hulu means with regard to me is that I’ll no longer be an early adopter — a fan that watches, waits and discusses the episodes week-to-week. I’ll probably be someone that watches episodes of The Orville months or years after they’re released. Unless I hear great things about Season 3 that motivate me deviate from my habits to follow that show more closely.
And for myself, I don’t have time, or the stamina to “binge watch” anything. I think I sat through 3 episodes of something once. I just can’t sit and vegetate in front of the TV for that long. And I don’t want to feel like I have a time limit to get all those episodes in. And I very well could forget to cancel as well. I know others like that so that’s a really good point.
I’m curious where BellMedia will show this in Canada.
The Orville has been running on Citytv – a Toronto broadcast station that’s available nationally on cable.
Will it join everything Star Trek on Space premium cable and Crave on streaming?
I hate this. I really like this show. Can’t afford to pay for these dang streaming networks.
Unfortunately, this is the way things are and will continue to be, for the foreseeable future. Cable TV is on the way out. Paying $50-$60 a month for 4-5 streaming services is what most people are or will be doing. I have Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and CBSAA, and I still pay about a third of what my retired father still insists on paying for cable.
Well of course, let me pay for yet another service to watch TV Like I have money to burn! I was enjoying watching the Orville on Fox.
The Orville was literally the only show I still watched on broadcast TV, and I don’t have cable or home internet (only phone access). So much for me watching The Orville!
If you don’t have cable or home Internet, how are you posting here?
Scott Gammans,
Thomoz already answered that: (cell)phone.
Bummer. Guess I’m done watching this show.
I have been a longtime Hulu user before it converted from a free service to a pricy one. I wish ABC would have picked up “The Orville” for season three. I hope ABC would do it for season four in the event that Hulu is like “season three is good enough for us.” I shall wait till the DVD and Digital releases next summer.
I think a better home might have been SyFy or Comedy Central.
Not comedy central because they all but eliminated the humor from the show.
Or maybe FX, since that network and ABC and 20th and Hulu and “The Orville” are all owned by Disney.
Well thanks a lot Mr. McFarlane. I have been a fan since day one. So moving from TV to a pay service? This how you thank us? That’s gratitude for you. Screw the people who support you.
Easy there big fella, I doubt this was Seth’s decision. And nobody owes you a damn thing……watch it or don’t. Entitled much?
The amount of butt-hurt self-entitled whining on Twitter (and elsewhere) re this decision is tiresome. You’d think Seth McFarland had broken into everyone’s home and stolen their firstborn.
First of all, as Seth already tweeted, the distribution for international viewers probably is not affected by this move. But even if the show really is a “Hulu exclusive“ and Hulu goes international, the show’s fans will still have plenty of options.
If you don’t have home internet but have a smartphone or internet-connected tablet, you can watch The Orville on the Hulu app. If you’re worried about cellular data caps, there are unlimited data plans out there starting as low as $40 a month (I’ve got one and it works great). If you don’t want to switch carriers and you don’t want to subscribe to Hulu, wait for the S3 Blu-ray (one huge benefit of moving to Disney is that they do 1080p for their TV shows!) or subscribe to Hulu for just a month after the season is over, binge the whole thing, and then unsubscribe. (And if you can’t afford seven dollars a year to subscribe to Hulu for one month of binge-ing, how do you afford having a computer and paying the electric bill to run it?)
TL;DR: There are solutions, if you’re willing to look for them.
It’s not about $7. It’s about $12 for this service. $10 for another and another and another. And then that 12 times a year. Eventually, however, I’d wager some third party like Comcast, DTV or Cox will bundle a bunch of streaming services together and provide it to you at a bulk rate. Like cable but for streaming services.
I won’t be seeing it then, another service to pay a subscription to.
Okay,
I do not subscribe to cable television.
Watching Orville using an antenna was awful so I started watching it using Fox streaming until Fox decided that you had to login with your cable provider or subscribe to Hulu.
You could wait until after the sixth episode to watch the start of Season 2 using Fox’s streaming option.
I got tired of this so subscribed to Hulu only for the season.
I canceled the subscription afterwords.
Fortunately, I could buy a season subscription to Orville on iTunes for both seasons 1 and 2.
The episode would drop one or two days later after the original air date.
We are going to have to prioritize which shows are more important to us.
Maybe we should blame the advent of DVR.
Subscription services are still cheaper than cable if you prioritize and are willing to wait or just buy season passes when available.
I subscribe to CBS All Access and Amazon Prime since I’m in the US.
I dropped my NetFlix subscription.
I prefer to buy the shows in digital format or on DVD anyway.
the ability to watch shows on demand is so much better than broken VCR tapes or limited viewings on cable.
I still have things I recorded on my DVR that are a month old. Still the best format for watching stuff as far as I’m concerned. And I really don’t pay very much for cable. I scratch my head at people who say they pay $150 or $200. What they hell are they subscribing to?
Won’t pay to watch Disco—-THE ORVILLE!!!111 !
I feel bad for those who despise supplemental streaming so much that they rejected Discovery for that reason right from the start and now The Orville has decided to join Disco down the same path! Just a thought but IMO the best way to buy content going forward, cut the cord and just buy basic cable and supplement it with 6-7 streaming options (Netflix, Hulu, CBSAA, Apple, NHL TV, NFL TV, etc). You end up paying about the same as before but all your money no longer goes to COMCAST etc. Just a suggestion.
Cut the cord 7 years ago……..streaming IS the way to go.
Agreed. Give it another 5 years, and the cord cutters who saved money in the past will be essentially paying in total for all of the services that they used to shell out for Cable or Satellite.
Over the long run, there is no free lunch here.
For one thing… There are too many things I could not get if I cut that cord. Things that are not available on streaming.
LOL
And I love the posts that are trying to make this come across like it’s a win. It’s not!
Just watch Midnight’s Edge try to make this like the show has won the Lottery. :-))
With the ratings Orville is lucky it has a 3rd season at all. I just hope they don’t slash the budget too much. And ME is just full of shit………they always have been.
Fox had a 3 year deal with MacFarlane. They couldn’t cancel it so dumping it to die on Hulu was the next best thing.
Yep.
Good riddance to this piss-poor intellectual theft of Star Trek.
I’m glad to say I never watched an episode. Good riddance.
And yet you seem to find the time to come in here and complain incessantly about the show. Interesting.
I know, I’m a terrible person, but I’m only Human. Mostly…
I watched a few, and I will never be able to get those hours of my life back.
You’re not a terrible person. You’re just a terribly uninteresting person.
Even better.
For my part, I didn’t like the way they essentially stole Trek concepts to create the show in the first place, but OK I could have moved on from that…except but then they kept raiding Trek for actors, production staff and directors as well. So yea, I will not apologize for enjoying somewhat the beginning of the end of this failed enterprise (pun intended).
no. it doesn’t work like that. you’re wrong. they can cancel any show any time. they didn’t renew it for 3 years. new fox is getting out of the scripted tv biz…
Then they would have cancelled it outright. The ratings aren’t very good and Fox wants the time slot back. If they could have cancelled it they would have.
The ratings stunk in Season 2. Fact!
unhappening,
But Disney bought 20th Century Fox Television and is NOT getting out of the scripted tv biz.
Not good. I don’t get Hulu and I’m already paying too much for TV. (I have Dish.) So I’ll have to wait until they go to Netflix or Amazon Prime. Bad move, Seth.
Imagine if you canceled Dish and only subscribed to Hulu, Netflix, CBS:AA, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. You’d still be saving a bit of money.
In my case, I would lose access to about 2/3 of what I regularly watch on TV.
production was gonna be delayed and fox is getting out of the tv scripted biz.
unhappening,
But Disney bought 20th Century Fox Television and is NOT getting out of the scripted tv biz.
DAMN!!! Hulu sucks and is a very bad streaming service here!!! Fox worked great for us. Now we wouldn’t see The Orville!!! PLEASE stay on FOX!!!
Oh great, yet another show goes on a subscription service. Many people are trying to lower their cost of watching TV, by cutting cable/services, not by adding. By moving the show to Hulu, Orville will lose more viewers then it will gain. Truly stupid move.
I’ll be cautiously optimistic, for now. “Designated Survivor” moved from ABC to Netflix, and the show became totally unwatchable for me. If The Orville suddenly has several curse words in every other scene, or approaches HBO-levels of raunch, I will be very disappointed.
I agree with this. Designated Survivor lost me as a fan after the move to Netflix.
I seem to recall Seth saying The Orville was somewhat family friendly on purpose though. So maybe he and Disney won’t go hog wild on the profanity just because they can get away with it.
Interesting. I haven’t seen the newest Designated Survivor yet. I was only moderately on board with it before. Perhaps I won’t waste my time with the Netflix season then.
Well, I won’t be able to watch The Oville anymore then. I was fine buying the seasons on Amazon, but now it’s a HULU exclusive show? This is the same streaming service that makes you pay to watch shows with ads, right? I mean CBS All Access does that too, and I sub to that because they have shows I enjoy, and I also have Amazon Prime yearly subscription. I will be getting Disney+ just to watch season 7 of The Clone Wars and to have access to the new marvel stuff that comes out on it, but that’s it, no more streaming service subscriptions for me.
I bought the first season online…mainly because the season was mostly over before I realized the show was worth a try.
I don’t know where BellMedia will put S3 in Canada, but if it’s exclusively on Crave, I’ll just buy the season rather than an entire service I don’t want.
Clearly the show isn’t doing well in the ratings and he feared (or perhaps he got word) that it would be cancelled so they moved it. You don’t leave a major network for a streaming service, much less the 3rd rated (behind Netflix and Amazon) Hulu just becuase you can do more/different content. Is it going to be adult rated and not for the entire family? Liely the same exact show.
The Orville already has a 14+ rating in Canada, the same as Star Trek Discovery.
It’s definitely into adult themes and content at times.
Compare that to the 90s Trek which generally rates PG8+, with the occasional episode crossing into 14+.
I know that different countries have different ratings systems, but it sounds as though The Orville was already pushing the limits for a broadcast show in its time slot.
that makes no sense… people have gotten dumber… wow… a shows producer doesn’t feel fear of getting cancelled after being renewed that makes no sense.
Good point!
Then what’s your logical explantion.
Of all the shows on Fox, I wonder why they specifically chose The Orville to move exclusively to Hulu and not any of the other shows airing on the broadcast network. How many Fox shows did Disney become the new owner of? Probably a dozen different shows, right?
-Jeff
Good question. Are you thinking it’s because Disney finds The Orville a bit too risque for network TV and doesn’t want to deal with sponsors complaining and/or backing out?
I don’t know, but it seems like Empire is worse than The Orville in that regard.
The bottom line is whether a viewer finds The Orville a good enough show to pay a monthly subscription fee for it. And, weighing on the cost side of the analysis is all of the other monthly subscription fees that one already pays — for TV/movies, news content, and various other online subscriptions, like educational materials, online shopping services and whatnot. Five dollars here, ten dollars there, it all adds up. Plus, if you already pay for cable TV, that’s obviously a big one.
For my money, The Orville is an OK show. From the beginning I’ve thought of The Orville as the little show that could. It was very rough around the edges and chaotic throughout Season 1, but it showed improvement and growth potential. Season 2 was an improvement over Season 1, but I started getting the impression — from the areas where the show didn’t improve — that it has a certain, cheesy, wannabe-TNG (poor-man’s TNG) sensibility built into its core that is unlikely to change. This doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t still enjoy Season 3 or that I didn’t look forward to seeing it — I did, and will still watch it whenever I have access to Hulu via a friend or relative. But, it’s not a good enough show to justify adding yet another monthly subscription service when my other subscription-service queues are overflowing with great content that I haven’t had time to watch yet.
Would another $6 per month break me? No. Though, the thought of paying $6 per month to watch commercials does put me off. Yeah, yeah, I know the economic rationale. It still puts me off. And I wouldn’t pay $12 per month for it. Now we’re getting close to movie theater price territory. I’d rather pay $16 for a night out than $12 to stay home, unless that $12 buys me a really fantastic viewing experience. And The Orville ain’t that. If The Orville gets really good and transcends the middling tier that it seems designed for, then I’ll swallow my pride and pony up the $6 for ad-infused Hulu. But, it’s not enough of a draw to make me a subscriber at this point, especially not with commercials added in, which is just kind of obnoxious. I remember when Hulu was a free service. Back then, ads were acceptable. But, Hulu did what so many companies do — they used the public to grow large enough so that they could then jack up prices on the people who made them what they are. And there’s something inherently off-putting about that, too.
“Would another $6 per month break me? No. Though, the thought of paying $6 per month to watch commercials does put me off. ”
This this and this. This is what it comes down to. No way in hell do I pay $6 for shows WITH commercials that I cannot get around. So that makes the only viable option going with the $12 commercial free version. But do I want to do that for ONE show? I already do that for Trek. I’m not going to do that for a show that did not improve from their first to 2nd season. If they had, if they had leaned more towards the things that made season 1 fun, I would have a dilemma on my hands. As it stands, not following it to Hulu is a no brainer.
Certainly seems like a downgrade (definitely in mediated salaries and production finance too) , although Hulu have been the saviour of many a failed series , bless them . Maybe it’s time to call for the cavalry to rescue them , from over Amazon way .
I wonder whether MacFarlane will indulge himself with more graphic content.
This is like when the studios take a show that’s doing well and stick it in one of their worst timeslots because they feel it’s strong enough to bring the studio’s viewership up in that slot and in doing so frees up its previous timeslot for a new show. Normally the only thing this accomplishes is killing off the show.
As a cord-cutter for years now, I already watched it on Hulu. Sounds good to me.
Is it wrong that I am enjoying the fact that on the Trek side of things, we have nothing but great things to rejoice about, while the Orvillites are in the process of immolating themselves over the move to Hulu?
And, here comes all the butthurt viewers….give up a latte once a month and get hulu FFS
Well, the bad news is that now I won’t be able to see The Orville for a year after it premiers. No way am I paying for Hulu. But the good news is that the 2nd season of the show went tremendously down hill from the first and all signs are that is the direction producers want it to go. So I don’t think I’m going to be missing much.
I watch the show, but don’t really have strong positive or negative feelings about it, but it seems like most people liked S2 more. I’m curious about how you thought S2 was worse than S1.
For me, what set the show into its own thing was the comedic aspect of it. The first season had a lot more jokes than the 2nd. And most of them actually landed. The 2nd season had one good laugh the entire season. And at best a chuckle every other episode. This was not the way to go. Going for the more dramatic only made it feel more like a TNG rip off rather than an entertaining TNG homage. It was the comedy that set it apart. They all but eliminated that aspect of the show. It was not good enough to be a dramatic series and Seth was not a good enough actor to lead it. He can lead a light hearted show. But not this. And if they leaned more to the comedy then the occasional dramatic tale they DID do would carry even more weight. To sum up, I liked when they were offering a fresh take on the genre. Not so much when it was a repeat of what we saw already.
That’s a good point. I do agree that some of the humor in the first season was pretty good, especially as the season went on.
The Disney Empire needs to organise it all out and release The Orville on Blu-ray across the world. It is one of the few series (along with HD versions of DS9 & VOY) that I would love to buy.
Hello. Well, 20th stated that they release *only movies* on Blu-ray. The only formats 20th would release TV shows are DVD and Digital HD. Yes, Disney owns 20th.
AP,
TMZ reported that Grimes and Palicki developed a romance on set, just recently married each other and now, filed for divorce.
Any indications whether, this affected production any more severely than Seth’s breakup?
You are confusing the real life of these actors with their roles on a new ep in Picard called “Inner Light 2.” In that ep, they fall in love, get married, have kids, and then get divorced…then get beamed back to Picards ship at the end, and are young again.
Heh, so they did:
tmz. com /2019/07/22/adrianne-palicki-files-for-divorce-from-scott-grimes/
ENews reported MacFarlane and Halston Sage dating was a rumor unconfirmed by either of them:
eonline. com /news/970769/halston-sage-and-charlie-puth-show-pda-in-a-pool-amid-dating-rumors