Hulu Doesn’t Want You To Binge-Watch Its New Exclusive Shows

When The Mindy Project makes its Hulu debut, it will be released weekly, rather than all episodes at once.

When The Mindy Project makes its Hulu debut, it will be released weekly, rather than all episodes at once.

If you’re still a bit bleary-eyed because you stayed up late watching all of the Wet Hot American Summer prequel show on Netflix last night, you’re apparently not the target consumer for Hulu, which has announced that its original program will be meted out in weekly portions.

Hulu has been increasingly getting into original programming. It recently picked up The Mindy Project after it got dumped by Fox, and it’s currently rolling out a new slate of shows, like Difficult People, and The Hotwives of Las Vegas, but will only be doing it one episode per week.

“With all of our new originals, we will release episodes weekly,” explained Hulu’s Head of Content Craig Erwich on Sunday. “We want to give viewers the opportunity to discover their favorite shows every week.”

Erwich explains that it’s all in the cause of creating “watercooler” shows that build an audience through word of mouth and anticipation. There’s also a benefit, he argues, for TV critics and writers, who have been trying to sort out how to review and write about shows that are released a full season at a time.

A weekly release schedule gives them the “time to discover and hopefully celebrate these shows as well,” said Erwich, who pointed out that there’s nothing stopping people from binge-watching a show once it’s all been put online.

Amazon tried to go with the once-weekly episode launch when it launched original content on Amazon Prime, but that model has quickly falling by the wayside in favor of putting it all out there at once.

Netflix original programming has always been binge-watchable, though it did recently make an exception for Between, a co-production with a Canadian broadcaster. In that case, episodes went online weekly.

Hulu Original Series to Be Released Weekly, Content Boss Says [TheWrap]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.