New Knight Rider to Debut on Hulu!

[Knight Rider Archive]

Broadcasting & Cable report that NBC are giving users of Hulu (the video-streaming site they founded with News Corp) a sneak peek of some of their fall shows, streaming them before they debut on the Network!

"The series premiere of Knight Rider and the season premieres of Chuck, Life and Lipstick Jungle will be available on Hulu one week before they appear on NBC's primetime lineup.

Hulu is setting up a dedicated section of the site for new fall programming, where it will aggregate all of the season and series premieres from its participating networks, most notably NBC and Fox.

"The Hulu Fall Lineup, as it is being called, will premiere new episodes of primetime shows for seven straight weeks beginning Sept. 2."

Awesome news!

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6591795.html

[JWise1203]

Wow this is great!!! I didn't know if I could wait until the 24th ... lol

[Solid Snake]

To be honest, I am not so sure it is such a good idea... the 1st epp has to be really good or else the ratings will not be very high for the actual show on TV.

[djshag69]

Pros: Everyone here is drooling to see this show now we get it a week sooner, and it falls on m bday what more could I ask for

Cons: If everyone jumps on this and doesn't watch it on NBC on the 24th, then the ratings won’t be as high. That could cause a serious problem is we want them to have a 24 episode season, since they are only signed on for 13 episodes.

Overall: I think this could have a negative impact

[PHOENIXZERO]

That's awesome! We get to see the first episode one week earlier. I doubt it'll have much impact on the ratings, it might even help by getting some good word of mouth advertising. If it sucks hard then yeah, then it'll probably not be so good but NBC seems confident by doing this. They'll certainly factor in the number of views they get online with the ratings. I know I'll still watch when it's on TV though it doesn't matter if I do or not since I don't have a Nielsen box or DVR.

[tamatt27]

To be honest, I am not so sure it is such a good idea... the 1st epp has to be really good or else the ratings will not be very high for the actual show on TV.

I'm sure Hulu will relate to NBC how many subscribers and viewers they have of the premier. It's probably a more accurate way to calculate viewers than the Neilson ratings.

[jaimetheking]

That's cool, but I rather wait and watch it on my plasma TV in HD and digital surround sound!

[Knight316]

It could be both good or bad. I don't think it will have any larger negative impact on the show as a regular online review would. If some people read a negative review of a show or movie they take that as gospel and don't watch it but those people are so few and far between. I think there's going to be enough interest generated by all the great promos and the comic-Con trailer that people will at least be checking it out to decide whether they like it or not. And i think GST knows he's gotta hook people in the pilot or they won't tune in the next week to see what heppens. Too bad i won't get to see it. Canada doesn't get to watch anything on Hulu.

[PHOENIXZERO]

There are ways around the IP restrictions. They can be legal or illegal depending on if you have permission.

[Knight316]

Hmmm....care to share any legal ways?

[PHOENIXZERO]

Proxies, there are ones that are public and thus legal for anyone to use. Then there are those that aren't public that people still use but the legality of doing so is illegal.

[Sue]

That is so not fair that other countries can’t watch it!!
As for ratings I agree with phoenixzero, if anything it will help ratings cause they can count how many of us watch it on hulu, and not too many of us have Nielsen boxes anyway. At least that’s the way I understand it to work.
Okay, okay, so it’s the 17th. But what time!! I so want to be able to watch it at the same time as everyone so we can all chat about it!!! Are they gonna stick it up at midnight of the 16th? …I guess we could scope out the other shows they are airing to see how it works.
It will be odd to watch it on my computer; I’m not sure how I feel about this. It’s sure not the most comfortable place to watch TV. Now if only I had an HD TV I could just hook my laptop to it… I guess were all gonna have to rig up something quick.
PS we had better all uses spoiler tags if Canada isn’t gonna get to watch it for a whole week!!

[PHOENIXZERO]

Ugh, I messed up my last post when I edited it...

We should have a discussion thread dedicated to it and actually done for every episode to help reign in the posting of a dozen spoiler ridden topics posted about the same episode, then have a new topic on the day it premieres on TV but still with spoiler tags when needed. Others are just going to have to have enough sense to not visit a topic that's obviously going to have spoilers. I personally have no problem watching anything on my monitor, I'm right next to my TV anyway and I'm sure you can watch in full screen.

[Knight316]

Pheonix, would you be able to tell me how to get access to a proxy? I tried looking it up on Wikipedia to see what it is exactly but I still don't really understand how they work or how to use one.

[jaimetheking]

Hmmm....care to share any legal ways?

Hope this is ok.

But some of my Canadian friends use ipchicken...

[PHOENIXZERO]

IIRC I've brought this up before and I doubt Neil or Mike would be thrilled with my explaining it in any detail here since it can be used in an illegal manner, I've probably said too much about it already.

[jaimetheking]

IIRC I've brought this up before and I doubt Neil or Mike would be thrilled with my explaining it in any detail here since it can be used in an illegal manner, I've probably said too much about it already.

...Knock Knock...
PHOENIXZERO: "Hi, can I help you?"
FBI AGENT: "We need to have a word with you!"
PHOENIXZERO: "What did I do?"
FBI AGENT: "We know what you do on knightrideronline.com."
PHOENIXZERO: "Oh Sh*t!"

hehe...hope you don't get in trouble dude!

[weeezl]

My anticipation for this show is high but i`m not about risk it just incase!, theres no way im gonna get in s**t over a TV show - even if it is Knight Rider.

Luckily Ive got a cousin who lives in the US, I really hope that she can understand that I NEED to see it and record it and send it to me, not sure if its legal or not but im not gonna get myself in trouble whatsoever, Not sure how it works but hopefully.............

[Michael Pajaro]

NBC has been very, VERY good to us. And we will be good to them by not sharing ways to bypass their movie players. Enough said.

Internet television is still a brave new world. i find it hard to believe that a Hulu premiere would have a large impact on the broadcast ratings. I'm assuming a "hit" Hulu show would be measured in terms of... a couple hundred thousand downloads? A network broadcast is still measured in terms of millions of viewers. And many Hulu viewers will still tune in again to watch it on TV.

I'm making this up as I go along, but I think there is some truth to this: if a studio isn't confident in a new movie/tv show, they don't release preview versions to the press ahead of time (90210 anyone?) If NBC didn't feel strongly about Knight Rider, I don't think they would release it on Hulu.

[pheonix_knight]

i wouldnt mind being able to pay to see the show online it would be great in this age of technology if NBC embraced that as they would get viewing figures far in excess of what is possible just from one country. It would also be better than the show getting sold to foreign countries just as it gets cancelled in its domestic market

[PHOENIXZERO]

Well, it'd probably would have put up on iTunes (yuck) if it weren't for the falling out NBC had with Apple.

[weeezl]

Lets hope that people who catch it on Hulu dont spoil it for others!

You mods better be on alert!

Get your spoiler tags on standby!

I dont wanna see anything big-time spoilerish till premiere night or I`ll have to hop on a plane and come and duff you all up!

Even though I wont get to see it until a little while after, premiere nights different, its an event! so I`m hoping the chatrooms on fire! and we can all discuss it.

[PHOENIXZERO]

We will need a "Episode 1-1: Knight In Shining Armor Online *SPOILERS*" topic on the day it's up. Then when it's on TV a similar topic for the East and West coasts. Or people on the west coast will just have to avoid the topic until they see it.

[LadyV2000]

I might try the Hulu thing if my anticipation for the premiere gets the best of me, but preferably I'd much rather watch it on my 42 in HDTV. My parents with just have to watch Criminal Minds downstairs that night and for the rest of the season.

[Michael Pajaro]

I'm going to add to what LadyV was just saying....

In a way, I'm disappointed Knight Rider will be available on Hulu. There is no way I can NOT watch it when it becomes available online. But I don't care what you say, online viewing cannot compare to the experience of full broadcast HDTV. It doesn't. There is a very good chance there will be buffering issues or the compression will be worse than what you have on TV, or the sound won't be as good. Bottom line, we won't get the full immersive experience the first time we see the pilot.