Just yesterday, Hulu released the teaser for its upcoming miniseries 11/22/63, making room for new content, and today the subscription streaming service is clearing out another original series in its place. This morning, we learned The Awesomes is being cancelled by Hulu after three seasons on the service. The third season recently concluded at the beginning of November.
While getting cancelled is bad news for the Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker-created series, THR says the whole thing isn’t a done deal, yet. The Awesomes is currently being shopped elsewhere, in case there are any takers. Since cancelled shows often come back to life on streaming services, I can’t imagine who would be interested in picking up the animated comedy, which features voicework from Ike Barinholtz, Kenan Thompson, Rashida Jones and others, but hey, I guess it isn’t over until it’s officially over. Suffice to say, Hulu will not be producing any more episodes of the animated comedy.
The Awesomes first hit the schedule during the summer of 2013. At the time, the series was part of a new programming slate Hulu was trying, hoping to produce its own content that would resonate with fans. Among the other originals at the time was the forgettable Mother Up! and Behind the Mask, neither of which gained as much notice as The Awesomes. Two more seasons of the unqualified superhero-based series were subsequently ordered, for a total of 30 episodes.
The Awesomes was a pioneer for Hulu in a lot of the same ways that Lilyhammer was an original programming experiment for Netflix. Both shows gave their respective streaming services a viable audience and helped to put them on the map as original programmers. And both shows ultimately earned three seasons before their streaming services gave them the axe to make room for newer programming. Now, Hulu is becoming more known for live-actions shows like Casual and The Mindy Project, and while the streaming service is clearly looking to beef up its originals, it seems as if there wasn’t really room for The Awesomes in that slate.
We’re a little sad that it’s the end of an era and the animated superhero comedy will be no more, but honestly, I’m not sure how many viewers will deeply miss the funky comedy. While it always sucks when a show gets the axe, this shouldn’t be too bad for creator Seth Meyers, who does have his own late, late night program on network TV. Nor should it be too bad for Shoemaker, who is also a producer on Late Night with Seth Meyers. That partnership is clearly going to last longer than this superhero series.
