Hulu has renewed Liz Meriwether‘s thriller Furious, starring Emmy Rossum, for a second season. It is an unusually early pickup by the Disney streamer which (like other platforms) usually waits for long-tail viewership data before making renewal decision. Furious is still rolling out its first season, with the season finale, written by Meriwether, premiering Aug. 31.
The pickup of Furious follows the cancellation earlier this week of another freshman Hulu original, comedy Not Suitable For Work, which was done two months after that series’ finale.
Hulu has not released ratings data for Furious yet but noted in the renewal announcement that viewership has been growing week over week.
Nielsen’s reporting is delayed, with numbers for Furious‘ launch week coming out later today. Despite premiering with only three episodes vs. full-season drops for many streaming series, Furious is rumored to have cracked the Top 10 for streaming originals, which is based on total minutes consumed.
Despite its staggered release, Furious also has been a consistent presence on Luminate’s weekly rankings, peaking at No.5 with 2.43M U.S. views for its first full week of release.
Additionally, Furious is believed to be the #1 series on Disney+/Hulu worldwide for the month of August and the #2 freshman drama on Hulu in the U.S. year to date, with 4B cross-media impressions.
Furious‘ solid performance, coupled with its 98% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and reasonable cost by streaming standards likely tipped the scale for an early renewal.
From creator and executive producer Meriwether, 20th Television and Searchlight Television, Furious follows an FBI agent, Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating female serial killer (Lola Petticrew). Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur.
Quincy Tyler Bernstine and Scoot McNairy star alongside Rossum and Petticrew; Jake Lacy, Rob Delaney, Hope Davis, Rob Yang and Steve Way guest starred in Season 1, which was also executive produced by Rossum for Composition 8, along with Ronald Bass, Matt Olmstead, and Sam Hoffman. Brian Kirk executive produced and directed episodes 101 and 102.
Furious is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ in the US for bundle subscribers and on Disney+ internationally.
