Jerry Seinfeld is finally getting that long-rumored late-night talk show.
Well, sort of.
For Season Six of his popular Web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” Crackle is dropping new episodes Wednesdays at 11:30 p.m. — putting Seinfeld in direct competition with late-night hosts like Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert (who have both appeared as guests on his show).
“We felt it was warranted to be in that timeslot,” says Crackle general manager Eric Berger. “It’s not a Web series in the traditional sense — in that people think about Web series in one category and think about premium video in another category.
“This is really just to say you can think of this as a great show like the type of show you see on [traditional] television.”
Previous seasons of “Comedians in Cars” debuted Thursdays at 12:01 a.m., so the move is more symbolic than substantial, It also allows “Comedians” to compete in the same Emmy category as the late night talk shows — and follows Crackle’s announcement this spring of its “Always On” experience, where scheduled programs immediately begin playing when launching the app (just like live TV).
Other streaming services have also opted to premiere their original series to mimic the traditional TV scheduling model.
When Yahoo Screen debuted its much-promoted new sixth season of “Community” in March, it dropped episodes weekly. Hulu has likewise done a once-a-week rollout for many of its originals, including Seth Meyers’ animated “The Awesomes” and the Chris O’Dowd starrer “Moone Boy.”
Even Netflix — which pioneered the “binge release” model with “House of Cards” in 2013 — is rolling out episodes of its new drama “Between” weekly (to coincide with its Canadian broadcast), rather than waiting until the entire season is available.
“What I see the major streaming services doing is experimenting with a wide variety of models,” says Steve Beck, managing partner at consulting firm cg42. “What they ultimately are looking for is predictable subscription revenues —and one of the best ways to do that is to draw series out over time.
“It’s not surprising to see them look at new content through the lens of a broader schedule that allows for continuity while ‘old content’ is available when you want it,” he says.
Crackle has yet to decide how it will release its first original drama, “The Art of More” (starring Dennis Quaid) later this year; ditto for future Hulu originals like “The Mindy Project.”
(Hulu declined to comment.)
And while binge-viewing is popular — and Berger expects it to remain so with certain viewers — he notes that for a niche streaming service like Crackle, a network-like scheduling model makes sense.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if others started to adopt this in the future,” he says.