And, unlike ABC, Fox, and NBC, you won't be able to watch some network prime-time shows the next day. Instead, Hulu Plus subscribers will have access to more than 2,600 episodes from library series such as "Medium," "Numb3rs" and "CSI: Miami," as well as classics such as "Star Trek," "I Love Lucy" and "The Twilight Zone." More recent shows will only be available the year after they've hit the airwaves. In short, I can forget about watching the current season of The Good Wife over Hulu or Hulu Plus.
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The CBS content will start to appear on Hulu Plus in January 2013. The only current content will be clips from Entertainment Tonight. I am soooo excited about that. This will be available the day of broadcast on both Hulu and Hulu Plus.
Some, but not many, older CBS shows are expected to be available on Hulu. But, you're going to need a good online TV search program, such as the one Roku's now building into its media boxes or the Clicker website. That's because the shows themselves will rotate in and out on a monthly basis. So, for example, one month you might be able to watch episodes of "Happy Days" and next month's epsiodes of "The Brady Bunch."
Hulu put the best face on it they could. "CBS has a long history of producing truly great TV. Hulu Plus subscribers are entertainment lovers who spend their time watching shows they love, versus shows they might only just like. Those two facts make for a fantastic combination, because this collection of CBS titles are shows that people revere and that really matter to fans of great TV like our subscribers," said Andy Forssell, Senior Vice President of Content for Hulu in a statement.
Someday, we'll get real a la carte TV channel choice over the Internet of all the major networks' main shows, but that day isn't here yet. Still, at least some additional CBS TV shows will finally be cheaply and easily available for your media extender.