“King Of The Hill” Makes Strong Debut On Hulu & Disney+
Earlier this month, Disney brought back the iconic adult-animated show, “King Of The Hill” after over a decade away, bringing back many of the voices from the original show, while also updating the show for a new audience.
Set in the fictional Arlen, Texas, the original series followed the life of Hank Hill, an enthusiastic seller of propane and propane accessories; his wife, Peggy, local Boggle champ and substitute teacher; and their son, Bobby, who defied any expectation his father had for a son. Hank’s friends – conspiracy theorist Dale, military barber Bill, and cool but inarticulate Boomhauer, along with Peggy’s friends Minh and meteorologist Nancy, and Bobby’s friend Connie helped the Hills navigate a changing world.
Season 14 picks up several years after we last saw the Hill family – Hank and Peggy Hill are now retired and return to a changed Arlen after years of working in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg. Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed Arlen, Texas to reconnect with old friends Dale, Boomhauer and Bill. Meanwhile, Bobby is living his dream as a chef in Dallas and enjoying his 20s with his former classmates Connie, Joseph and Chane.
The entire 14th season was released at once on August 4th on Hulu and Hulu On Disney+ in the United States and on Disney+ internationally.
This new release was a huge hit for Disney, pulling in 4.4 million views globally in the first seven days of streaming, making the show Disney+ and Hulu’s most-viewed adult animation season premiere in five years.
The new season also resulted in a bump in viewership of the original seasons, which ran for 13 seasons with over 250 episodes, on Hulu and Hulu On Disney+ in the United States and on Disney+ internationally. Pulling in 26 million hours and a 41% lift in viewing of previous seasons since the announcement of the new season earlier this year.
All together, “King Of The Hill” has now pulled in over a billion hours globally between Disney+ and Hulu and has been an enormous draw on social media.
The show stars Mike Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Johnny Hardwick, Stephen Root, Lauren Tom, and Toby Huss.
“King of the Hill,” from 20th Television Animation, is executive produced by original co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, as well as incoming executive producer and showrunner Saladin Patterson. Additionally, 3 Arts’ Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein, and Bandera Entertainment’s Dustin Davis serve as executive producers.
Roger’s Take: This strong debut will hopefully mean we’ll see more seasons of “King Of The Hill” in the future, and the binge drop model does seem to be really helping many of Disney’s latest new shows get much larger viewing figures. As now the focus is on how many minutes or hours are watched, rather than how many people are watching. Either way, this is a huge win for the show and highlights Disney’s commitment to adult-animated fare for its streaming services.
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