Skip to main content

From 'Saturday Night Live' to streaming: Seth Meyers on his new Hulu series 'The Awesomes'

From 'Saturday Night Live' to streaming: Seth Meyers on his new Hulu series 'The Awesomes'

Share this story

The Awesomes promo shot
The Awesomes promo shot

Original streaming video programming got a boost of legitimacy last week when two Netflix shows received Emmy nominations. Now Saturday Night Live stalwart (and future Late Night host) Seth Meyers is bringing his latest venture to life as an animated show on Hulu.

Hulu was the "perfect vessel"

The Awesomes is a comedy about the adventures of some not-so-super heroes. Conceived of back in 2006 by Meyers and Michael Shoemaker (Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon), the show didn't find the right creative home until Hulu stepped up in 2011. "They were the first place that were willing to let us tell it the way we wanted to tell it," Meyers says of the relationship, describing Hulu as the "perfect vessel" for the show. The Awesomes debuts on Hulu on August 1st — Xbox owners will get it a week early starting this Thursday, July 25th — and is just one of several new original series the service will be releasing this year.

The pilot episode of the program debuted at Comic-Con, and features the exact kind of quick, smart humor you'd expect from the "Weekend Update" anchor. Meyers voices Prock, the underachieving son of a famed superhero that finds himself in charge of the titular collective, while Kenan Thompson plays a member of the team with some particularly severe mother issues. The likes of Taran Killam, Bill Hader, Bobby Moynihan, and Rachel Dratch fill out the cast.

We spoke with Meyers about the rise of online video, the logistics of bringing a show like "The Awesomes" to life, leaving Saturday Night Live, and his upcoming gig as the host of Late Night with Seth Meyers.