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Devs and other 'FX on Hulu' shows: What's their network?
posted by eifhkekSTAFFMOD on January 29, 2020 at 1:57 PM
Some FX shows like Devs and Mrs. America are going to be exclusive to FX's shingle on Hulu, which they're calling FX on Hulu. These shows won't air linearly, or at least premiere on FX, but FX develops them, markets them, and thus the Television Academy has deemed them FX's for Emmy purposes:
“We have determined that programming for ‘FX on Hulu’ will be considered FX, partly because Hulu doesn’t have any real involvement in the development, creative or marketing of the shows,” a TV Academy spokesperson told Variety.
As programmers begin to migrate their wares from linear to streaming platforms, get ready for more confusion when it comes to who should be credited for what. “FX on Hulu” is a portal on the Hulu service that houses FX series — but if some of those FX series can only be accessed via “FX on Hulu,” should that be considered its own, unique outlet? In this case, the Academy says no.
“This is a place where the industry’s going to have to grow, I think it’s going to have to change,” FX Networks CEO John Landgraf told Variety at the Television Critics Association press tour earlier this month. “If you think about it, you now have this weird state of affairs, where you have Amazon, Netflix and Apple, where the platform and the programming brand are the same. … Then you have Disney Plus, which is a platform that has five brands. You have Peacock, which is going to have multiple brands. You have Hulu, that now has two brands.”
As Landgraf mentions, I imagine this is only going to be the first of these instances as the conglomerate streamers proliferate. How are we going to handle this dynamic?
Reply by Banana
on March 13, 2020 at 11:04 PM
The original network field is for the original network/streaming platform. So shows exclusively released on Hulu should have Hulu as their original network.
Reply by virinr
on February 17, 2021 at 11:16 AM
Even though almost a year has passed, I do agree with @eifhkek. The Television Academy does not take this lightly and it is very uncommon for a linear network to produce and market content for a sister streaming service while still being credited as the original network in the awards circuit. The Hollywood Reporter has already reported that FX will deliver 30 percent of Hulu's original programming output but Landgraf has not mentioned a specific percentage but has said that FX will put 30 original series on Hulu as part of FX on Hulu:
Now, back to TMDB: TMDB has made exceptions for two programming blocks on cable channels (Nick@Nite and Adult Swim) per the TV Bible:
As we enter a new era in the streaming age, the way I see it is that 'FX on Hulu' is similar to a programming block on a cable channel. Both Nick@Nite and Adult Swim are branded separately from Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. The same goes for the awards circuit: Adult Swim was recognized as the winner of Outstanding Animated Program in 2018, rather than Cartoon Network. The shows on Adult Swim and Nick@Nite are also marketed and greenlit by different entities from their main channel counterpart, similarly to FX on Hulu as Hulu does not market and greenlights these shows (as the TV Academy ruled for its own decision).
Therefore, I propose that FX on Hulu should be its own listing, similarly to Adult Swim based on the same exception. This way, all FX on Hulu shows are correctly tagged as an FX on Hulu series rather than a Hulu series. Especially with the number of series set to grow to 30 series, this will become a much bigger issue over time.