‘The Mindy Project’ Saved: Hulu Steps In To Rescue Fan-Favorite Show For A Fourth Season

Fans of The Mindy Project can breathe easy.

The popular Fox show was just handed its cancellation notice at the end of its third season, but now it has been saved for a fourth season thanks to Hulu. The digital subscription service just announced it would pick up a new season — complete with 26 episodes — of the show.

The rumors of a second life for The Mindy Project started almost immediately after it was canceled by Fox. Variety reported that Universal TV and Hulu were in talks to bring back the show for additional seasons.

The report claimed that The Mindy Project seemed a natural fit for Hulu.

“The shift to Hulu would be a smart move, given the already-standing library of past “Mindy” seasons, including all 67 episodes, plus the series’ very loyal — but not very large — fanbase. The series premiered to an audience of about 4.6 million in September 2012 and dipped to just over 2 million viewers with its season-three premiere this past March.”

The pickup also signals a continued shift away from network television and toward online providers. The Mindy Project joins other shows that have made the jump online — including another fan favorite in Community — to go along with popular original projects like House of Cards.

Experian Marketing Services recently found that the number of people watching shows exclusively through the internet is growing. Cord-cutters, defined as people who stopped subscribing to cable or satellite television and use high-speed internet instead, rose from 5.1 million homes to 7.6 million in three years, a growth of 44 percent.

Some experts predict that the shift will continue until network television is no more.

“The young millennials who are just getting started on their own may never pay for television,” said John Fetto, a senior analyst at Experian Marketing Services. “Pay TV is definitely declining.”

Many shows that aren’t a good fit for network television — where the bottom line comes down to a number of factors outside of pure ratings and popularity with fans — are now going straight to formats like Hulu and Netflix. NBC passed on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, for example, and the show has already gotten a second season commitment from Netflix.

Fans of The Mindy Project may have already had hints that the show was getting a second life. Within hours of the announcement, creator and star Mindy Kaling posted a video to Instagram in which winked at fans.

[Image via Fox]