The Delirium pilot, based on the best-selling YA series written by Lauren Oliver, was rejected by Fox last year, but it looks like the project may be getting a second chance. Instead of going down quietly into the failed pilot vault (or wherever pilots that don’t get a series order end up), you can watch Delirium on Hulu during its 24-day run this June/July, courtesy of the network.
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, Fox’s senior VP of multi-platform programming, recently stated:
“Why not? [The pilot] was finished. It was great. Why not allow consumers to enjoy it?”
Director Rodrigo Garcia, co-founder of digital studio Wigs, known for its popular online series Blue starring Julia Stiles, has been instrumental in getting the pilot released on Hulu. Hopefully this will set a precedent for other networks to make their typically dead pilots available to audiences, especially projects of this nature where there’s already a built-in fan base of the source material (e.g. The CW’s rejected pilot for The Selection, another popular trilogy).
Delirium stars Emma Roberts (American Horror Story: Coven) and Daren Kagosoff (The Secret Life of the American Teenager), along with a number of familiar faces. The show centers around Robert’s character, Lena Haloway, as she approaches her eighteenth birthday. Set in a dystopian society where love has been declared a disease, Lena finds herself experiencing illicit romantic feelings for the first time with Alex (Kagosoff), a member of a resistance against the society.
In my opinion, the pilot episode works quite well, and the characters definitely have chemistry. You can definitely see the potential right off the bat. I don’t blame Fox for passing on this series, though, as it doesn’t seem like it would fit well on the network. But, if the fans have anything to say about it, maybe Delirium will find a home elsewhere – ABC Family, perhaps?
Check out the pilot episode of Delirium below and let us know if you would like to see more episodes!
