Hulu Checks Out Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Other NBCU Shows For Peacock

Hulu’s loss is the peacock’s gain.

This week’s recall of programming rights to NBCUniversal from Disney’s Hulu has resulted in the removal of past dozens of seasons of popular shows on the streaming device — including the full show of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” — and those seasons have now been moved to NBCU’s Peacock Special .

Seasons 1-20 of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” which originally aired on E! , on Hulu as of September 18. Clan fan material: The Kardashians are back this week for a second season.

Additionally, multiple seasons of Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise are no longer available on Hulu. These include seasons 1-15, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”; “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” seasons 1-13; “The Real Housewives of New Jersey: Seasons 1-11”; “The Real Housewives of New York” seasons 1-12; “The Real Housewives of Orange County” seasons 12-15; “The Real Housewives of the Potomac” seasons 1-5; and “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” season one.

Hulu also left “Life of Kylie,” a Kylie Jenner-following reality series that ran for only one season, along with seasons 1-8 of Bravo’s “Vanderpump Rules” (part of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”) and “Top The Chef’ Seasons 1-18. It has also disappeared from Hulu as of September 18, seasons 1 through 8 of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” which is now broadcast exclusively on Peacock.

Previous seasons’ purge of NBCU-owned shows comes after Hulu also lost next-day access to current seasons of the NBC series, starting September 19, when they will now be available on Peacock Premium. The NBCU had already replayed the next day episodes of Bravo’s shows earlier this summer.

NBCU officials are clearly hopeful that their overhaul of “KUWTK” and other popular shows will boost Peacock’s viewing hours — and subscribers. In the second quarter, Peacock’s paid customers were flat at 13 million and Peacock’s total active accounts decreased by 1 million.

Meanwhile, Disney is in the midst of trying to buy a 33% stake in Hulu owned by Comcast subsidiary NBCU.

As of July 2, 2022, Disney has registered Comcast’s interest in Hulu at $8.6 billion, implying a valuation of $25.8 billion. Under the agreement granting Disney operational control of Hulu, Comcast has the right in January 2024 to require Disney to purchase its stake in Hulu (and, conversely, Disney has the right to force Comcast to sell it).

Disney CEO Bob Chapek indicated at an investment conference earlier this month once again that he wants to strike a deal with Comcast to own 100% of Hulu before the January 2024 date stipulated in the agreement. Chuckle said that full ownership of Hulu would be necessary for Disney to offer a “hard package” that would integrate Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. Later, at the same conference, Comcast President Brian Roberts suggested that his company would be interested in buying Disney’s 66% stake — and that selling all of Hulu’s auction-style might bring more than Disney’s implied valuation.

Despite losing several first-class titles to Peacock, Hulu will continue to do some NBCU shows for several more years. These include previous seasons of “Law & Order: SVU,” “This Is Us,” “The Mindy Project,” “30 Rock,” “Parenthood,” and “Will & Grace.” (NBCU’s full lineup of live TV channels – including NBC, E!, Bravo, USA, and MSNBC – will remain available to Hulu + Live TV subscribers.)



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