NBC will debut the season/series premieres of some of its lineup on the online streaming service Hulu one week before they air on the broadcast network. For example, the series premiere of the new Knight Rider and the season premiere of Lipstick Jungle, which will first air on NBC on 9/24 will be available on Hulu on Wednesday September 17.
Also available first online will be Chuck, and Life which will be available on Hulu on September 22, but don't debut on NBC until September 29.
This is not however being extended to every show on the peacock network. Shows that traditionally have performed well on television will make their season's bows on the TV network first, and then show up on Hulu a day later as is the case with Heroes, The Office and My Name is Earl.
Even some new shows like the My Own Worst Enemy will bow first on the network on October 17 and be available on Hulu the next day. Crusoe, which premieres on NBC on Friday October 17, will show up on Hulu on Monday October 20.
But good old 30 Rock, which doesn't have its season premiere on NBC until October 30, will appear first, a week earlier on Hulu.
You can see the full Hulu schedule via Hulu's Fall Premiere Lineup. Note the Hulu lineup also will display shows from Fox and some from USA, but they give you a week by week schedule of when the premieres will show up on Hulu.
Update: Separately, Variety is reporting that awareness of Knight Rider and CW's 90210 is high in advance of the premieres. Variety notes that awareness was higher for Knight Rider than even 90210, but that the other new fall shows have little awareness among TV viewers.
This will backfire on likely bad shows like Knight Rider. Now bad word of mouth can hurt the show before it even airs. Moot point, I guess, because Kinght Rider was just a plain bad idea anyways. Weekly hour long ford commercials will have limited appeal.
I’d also like to think MOWE and Crusoe isn’t premiering online because NBC is afraid of the bad hype, and really, who can blame them.
Dave, everyone said the two hour updated movie for Knight Rider stunk (I said it too, probably) but it did decent ratings both overall and in the 18-49 demo, and on a Saturday at that. I don’t know how much a two hour movie indicates how well a series (or even its premiere will do), but I’ll take a wait and see attitude.
Edit: now most definitely taking the wait and see attitude:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117991419.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
Maybe I should give Knight Rider the benefit of the doubt, but if you look at what NBC did last year with Bionic Woman than its prospects don’t look great. Sure a lot of people checked it out on premiere day but quickly turned away after discovering its overly dark tone, mediocre dialogue, and boring storylines. NBC seems to be taking the exact same strategy with its Knight Rider relaunch(Reviews have trashed the movies bad writing, boring characters), except with jarring product placement.
But I’ll wait.
It’s an interesting move to experiment with the release time for new TV series or episodes online before they air on TV. The more conventional approach – simultaneous release or making episodes online immediately after they air – has advantages too of course. ABC Family is doing that with shows like “Secret Life of the American Teenager” and “Greek” on Lycos Cinema (http://cinema.lycos.com). The appeal there is that fans can watch (or rewatch) the episode and chat about it real-time with other fans.