NBC announced that it would be releasing all episodes of Aquarius, a new show starring David Duchovny, on its website once it premieres on May 28th. The move has been hailed as a sign that the network is ‘influenced‘ by Netflix-style binge watching. NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said in a statement that:
With Aquarius we have the opportunity to push some new boundaries to give our audience something no broadcast network has done before. We are fully aware how audiences want to consume multiple episodes of new television series faster and at their own discretion, and we’re excited to offer our viewers this same experience since all 13 episodes of this unique show have been produced and are ready to be seen. I appreciate the enthusiasm we’ve gotten from the producers of the show and our partner Marty Adelstein of Tomorrow Studios to launch this series in a new, forward-thinking way.
But it’s probably something a little more two-fold than that. Yes, it’s trendy and intuitive to release a show for fans to gobble up on the Internet at their leisure. It’s also a good way to ensure that a mediocre show gains a following. A show has to be good for people to binge-watch and love it. Just look at Bloodline, which is having a rough start on Netflix.
Empire proved this winter that a good show, at the right time, with the right social marketing, and just enough cliff hangers could make linear viewing cool again. There’s no way to know if it would have been the same kind of hit if we were all curled up in front of Hulu bingewatching it over one weekend. That being said, Aquarius just sounds like the kind of show that tanks around episode five over the summer. When you binge watch something, you have less time to decide whether or not you’re going to tune in for the next one. By the time you start questioning your behavior, the next episode is autoplaying.
So, good for NBC for appealing to cord cutters and our viewing habits. But it’s just as good for Aquarius, because it might not have had a chance otherwise.