The third season of The Orville, Seth MacFarlane’s sci-fi series, will stream exclusively on Hulu, leaving Fox, which is focusing on live programming.
Season three is expected to be available on Hulu in late 2020.
“The Orville has been a labor of love for me, and there are two companies which have supported that vision in a big way: 20th Century Fox Television, where I’ve had a deal since the start of my career, and Fox Broadcasting Company, now Fox Entertainment, which has been my broadcast home for over 20 years," said MacFarlane in a statement. "My friends at the network understood what I was trying to do with this series, and they’ve done a spectacular job of marketing, launching and programming it for these past two seasons. But as the show has evolved and become more ambitious production-wise, I determined that I would not be able to deliver episodes until 2020, which would be challenging for the network. So we began to discuss how best to support the third season in a way that worked for the show. It’s exactly this kind of willingness to accommodate a show’s creative needs that’s made me want to stick around for so long.”
“I am hugely indebted to Charlie Collier and Fox Entertainment for their generosity and look forward to developing future projects there. And to my new friends at Hulu, I look forward to our new partnership exploring the galaxy together,” said MacFarlane.
Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox this year by The Walt Disney Co., 20th Century Television and Hulu became properties of Disney. The Fox broadcast network and Fox Entertainment is now part of the new Fox Corp.
“Fox Entertainment has been a fantastic home for The Orville and their willingness to support the show’s move to Hulu is incredibly appreciated; they really are great partners to us on so many shows and this is one more example," said Carolyn Cassidy, president of creative affairs, 20th Century Fox Television. "We’re thrilled as a studio to find this creative solution which is so meaningful to Seth and keeps the show on track to continue entertaining its millions of fans.”
The Orville will join Hulu’s lineup of original programs as it moves to compete with Netflix. Disney will also be adding Disney+ to its streaming arsenal later this year.
“We know our viewers are huge fans of The Orville, along with many of Seth MacFarlane’s groundbreaking hit shows, and we can’t wait to bring season three to them exclusively on the platform,” said Craig Erwich, SVP content development, Hulu. “Hulu is a home for the world’s most sought-after creative talent, and we’re incredibly excited to welcome Seth and the entire cast and creative team of The Orville to our Hulu Originals slate.”
The Orville is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Fuzzy Door Productions. The series was created and written by Seth MacFarlane. MacFarlane, Brannon Braga, David A. Goodman, Jason Clark and Jon Cassar serve as executive producer on the series. Jon Favreau directed the series premiere episode.
