SDCC2019 News | Orville Moving to Hulu

Seth MacFarlane's live-action scripted dramedy will move from Fox to Hulu for its upcoming third season. Creator, writer and star MacFarlane made the announcement Saturday afternoon during the show's San Diego Comic-Con panel, noting that the production demands of the increasingly ambitious space dramedy made delivering the series to the network for its planned midseason debut impossible. The series will launch on Hulu in late 2020 after having been off the air for a year and a half. Hulu has been the SVOD home to the first two seasons of The Orville.

With the move, the Disney-owned The Orville will now air on a Disney-controlled platform. The show was originally picked up straight to series at Fox and was produced in-house by 20th TV. The TV studio officially became part of the Disney fold earlier this year when the company's $71.3 billion acquisition closed. Fox will no longer have to pay a licensing fee to air the drama. 

What's more, the move also reduces MacFarlane's relationship a bit with the network whose parent company that also owns Fox News. MacFarlane has repeatedly criticized Fox News and has said he was "embarrassed" to work at the same company. (Following the Fox asset sale, he now is a Disney employee whose show, Family Guy, is licensed to Fox Entertainment.)

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