Hulu has set its next big true-crime doc project, a series following the notorious Sarah Lawrence College sex cult, just as its latest addition to the genre, Adam McKay’s “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty,” has achieved the title of Hulu’s most-watched documentary film to date.
Disney owned streamer confirmed that it has received at least 500,000 viewers. It does not provide specific numbers for viewership. Variety This is the record-breaking achievement. “God Forbid,” and previously held by 2019’s “Fyre Fest,” The count includes both original and non-original documents and is based only on the hours that were streamed in the first three weeks.
Produced by Alfred Spellman’s Rakontur and McKay’s Hyperobject and directed by Billy Corben, “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty” Giancarlo Granda is a former Fontainebleau Hotel pool attendant. He recounts the alleged events in his relationship to Becki Falwell, her husband Jerry Falwell Jr. and their influence over a presidential election.
Success is for “God Forbid” comes on the heels of two previous original doc hits for Hulu’s senior vice president of documentaries and scripted series Belisa Balaban, vice president Beth Osisek and their team: “Captive Audience” (produced by the Russo Bros. and directed by Jess Dimmock) became Hulu’s most-watched docuseries in June, and “Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons” Director Matt Tyrnauer won the most-watched TV title “Captive Audience” It premiered on July 1, 2007.
Hulu is next on the horizon “Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence,” a story told by the former students who fell under the influence of Larry Ray, early next year. Hulu offers this series on the notorious sex cult. “exclusive participation in this harrowing account of mind control and abuse that started in plain sight” Sarah Lawrence College, 2010.
“Stolen Youth” is executive produced by the Oscar-winning team at Story Syndicate (Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus and Jon Bardin) and is the result of three years of work by director and executive producer Zach Heinzerling, “who filmed with the survivors as they began to understand what they had been through,” per Hulu.