Hulu Acquires SVOD Rights To ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ & ‘Exorcist’

Hulu has acquired the exclusive subscription streaming video on-demand rights to the complete library of ABC’s comedy series Fresh Off the Boat. In addition to access to all past episodes of the series – including the complete third season – the deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution will also make future episodes of the comedy, renewed for a fourth season, available for streaming the day after they air on ABC.

As part of Hulu’s library deal with Twentieth TV, Hulu also has picked up past episodes of the studio’s Fox horror drama The Exorcist, renewed for a second season, and NBC comedy The Carmichael Show, which returns for a third season next week.

“With its funny and poignant storytelling, Fresh Off the Boat is a perfect addition to our growing offering of the biggest comedies on TV today,” said Lisa Holme, Hulu’s Head of Content Acquisition.

The pact follows Hulu’s recent SVOD deal with Twentieth TV for top freshman drama This Is Us. (Hulu also has rights to Twentieth TV’s drama series Empire and Homeland). Fresh Off the Boat joins such recent broadcast comedy acquisitions by Hulu as The Last Man on Earth, Black-ish, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Goldbergs. All these series come from studios whose parent companies have ownership stakes in Hulu.

Fresh Off the Boat, which also had been shopped for broadcast and cable syndication, is inspired by Chef Eddie Huang’s memoir Fresh Off the Boat, and follows 12-year-old hip-hop loving Eddie (Hudson Yang) who moved to suburban Orlando from DC’s Chinatown with his parents (Randall Park and Constance Wu). Fresh Off the Boat is written by Nahnatchka Khan, who also serves as executive producer and showrunner. Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar are executive producers, and the series is produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television for ABC.