Hulu customers expecting to stream “Impeachment: American Crime Story” today — or anytime soon — will be disappointed: The FX limited series isn’t on the Disney-controlled streaming platform’s on-demand streaming tiers.
Instead, “Impeachment,” a retelling of the notorious Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton saga from more than two decades ago, will be headed to Netflix sometime in 2022. The first episode of the series aired Tuesday night on FX.
Ordinarily, episodes of new FX original series and new seasons of existing series that premiere on FX and FXX are available the day after on Hulu (starting at 3:01 a.m. PT) streaming packages with ads and without ads. Hulu just announced a $1-per-month price hike for the two on-demand plans, starting next month.
But “Impeachment: American Crime Story” will not be available on Hulu because of licensing agreement that 20th Century Fox struck back in 2016 with Netflix for exclusive global SVOD streaming rights to the “American Crime Story” franchise from executive producer Ryan Murphy — prior to the studio being gulped down by Disney. That deal started with “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
Separately, in 2018, Murphy cut a five-year deal with Netflix, said to be worth up to $300 million over that time span, to produce new TV shows and movies.
While “Impeachment” isn’t on the Hulu baseline VOD tiers, customers with Hulu + Live TV are able to watch the limited series live when it airs on FX as well as on demand. The Hulu live TV service starts at $64.99 per month for a lineup of more than 75 channels. In addition, “Impeachment: American Crime Story” is available to subscribers of participating pay-TV operators through FXNow, the network’s authenticated streaming platform.
“Impeachment” stars Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky, Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, Clive Owen as Bill Clinton, Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton, Margo Martindale as Lucianne Goldberg and Annaleigh Ashford as Paula Jones. In addition, Billy Eichner stars as Matt Drudge, while Betty Gilpin plays Ann Coulter.
The series is based on Jeffrey Toobin’s book “A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President.”
