Our short national nightmare is over: Arrested Development is not leaving Netflix after all, Vulture has learned. Last month, the streamer added an expiration date to the show, informing subscribers that the series — both the original Fox episodes and the seasons produced for streaming — would be disappearing on March 15. But, as we previously noted when we reported on the possible departure, the fact that Disney’s 20th Television unit (not Netflix) controls the underlying rights to the show meant keeping Arrested on the service was complicated. The two companies had to agree on a new licensing deal for the show, how much it was worth, and what sort of exclusivity should be involved. Now that they have done all that, a Netflix rep confirms that the show is staying put.
What’s more, according to a source familiar with the matter, the new arrangement calls for Hulu to give up rights to streaming the first three seasons of Arrested later this year, allowing Netflix to become the exclusive streaming home for all things Bluth. Disney will, however, have the ability to sell linear TV rights to the show — including the Netflix seasons — either to an outside company or one of its own cable networks. Working all of this out clearly wasn’t a simple process, but the first real sign a deal might be in the offing came last week when the March 15 departure date for Arrested came and went and the show wasn’t pulled from the service. (Shout out to the ever-vigilant folks at What’s On Netflix for making note of this at the time.)
The earlier news of Arrested’s possible departure from Netflix prompted much social-media teeth-gnashing over the end of an era. And perhaps understandably so: The 2013 revival of Arrested was one of Netflix’s first stabs at producing original content, so an actual Netflix Original leaving the service felt like some sort of watershed moment. It’s quite possible that, at some point, Netflix will decide to walk away from an original show — either one it owns the rights to or one it leases from another company. But for now, that day is not yet here.