“The Handmaid’s Tale” is getting an aftershow for its fourth season, which launches Wednesday, marking the first-ever aftershow for its streaming platform, Hulu, TheWrap has learned exclusively.
Titled, “One Burning Question,” “The Handmaid’s Tale” post-show will explore Season 4 of the Emmy-winning drama, with each installment digging deeper into a central theme — or “one burning question” – from each of the season’s 10 episodes.
Hosted by journalist Stacey Wilson Hunt, a new “One Burning Question” will premiere each week with the latest episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 4, with the first three debuting Wednesday as the first three fourth-season episodes premiere and the rest rolling out weekly after that.
Episodes will feature “The Handmaid’s Tale” stars Elisabeth Moss, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd and Max Minghella, along with special guests like “The Bachelorette” alum Rachel Lindsay and comedian Whitney Cummings.
You can watch TheWrap’s exclusive trailer for “One Burning Question” via the video above.
Each of the 10 installments of “One Burning Question” will be 7-8 minutes in length and available to stream immediately after each episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale” in the “Extras” tab within the Hulu platform.
Non-subscribers will be able to access “The Handmaid’s Tale” aftershow via Hulu’s Facebook or YouTube page a few days after each episode premieres on Hulu.
With “One Burning Question,” Hulu joins the aftershow space that its competitors Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have already entered with postshow companions to series like “Stranger Things” and “The Boys.” But for Hulu, it wasn’t a matter of if they’d do an aftershow, but when — and with what show.
“I think we’ve always had interest in knowing that, especially for a show such as ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ the viewing experience doesn’t end when watching the episode ends,” Scott Donaton, head of creative at Hulu, tells TheWrap. “And so we’re always looking at how we can better serve the fans of the show, better serve the audience… And this is definitely a show where we also just observed how much in the social spaces these fans continue to talk about and dissect each episode and thought, you know, let’s help them do that and have some fun with it.“
Of course, whether Hulu decides to dive deeper into its other original series with more aftershows will depend on the response to “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” follower.
“We’re excited to see how fans engage with ‘One Burning Question.’ It’s our first time doing this. And so once we have a better sense of how this performs and if fans really take to this, we’re absolutely open to thinking about exploring it for other shows,” Donaton said. “It’s not something you want to do for every show or any show. ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ is so special and it is coming on its fourth season and there’s so much excitement around this season, such a strong appetite for it. It’s such a complex, layered show that’s hit culture in so many ways. So I think we’d be really careful about which shows we do this with. But we’re absolutely open to doing more of them.”
“One Burning Question” is produced by Greenhouse, Hulu’s in-house creative studio, in partnership with Known.
The first three episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 4 launch Tuesday at 9 p.m. PT/Wednesday at 12 a.m. ET on Hulu, along with the first three episodes of aftershow “One Burning Question.”
Leave a Reply