Hulu’s documentary chief Belisa Balaban has revealed today that Captive Audience, which premiered on the streaming platform just this year, has hit record-breaking numbers in terms of viewership and rating alike. Besides discussing just how big Captive Audience has gotten, Balaban has teased a few documentaries coming soon to Hulu, such as July’s Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons.
First released in April 2022, Captive Audience is a three-part documentary that follows the kidnapping of Steven Stayner, a 7-year-old boy from Merced, California. In 1972, Steven was kidnapped by Ervin Edward Murphy and convicted rapist Kenneth Parnell on his way home from school – Parnell then took Steven to a cabin in Catheys Valley, California, and later moved between several locations in the state. Parnell kept Steven captive for seven years, eventually using him in a scheme to capture more boys. Steven escaped with fellow captive Timothy White and reunited with the Stayner family in 1980. Still, the family’s time in the spotlight was not over – Steven’s older brother, Cary Stayner, would be arrested for the murders of four women in Yosemite National Park in 1999.
Belisa Balaban, chief of documentaries for Hulu, reports that in the months following its release, Captive Audience has risen to become the second-most popular unscripted show in the platform’s history, falling just behind The Kardashians in terms of all-time viewership but holding Hulu’s record for most-watched non-fiction show in the month after its release. Regarding the show’s popularity, Balaban told Variety, “This project is a great example of what a Hulu true crime story is — not just the story of a family and what they’ve endured over the years, but the media’s obsession with true crime.”
Belisa Balaban Outlines Hulu’s Documentary Mission and What’s to Come
In line with that true crime obsession, Balaban has led Hulu’s documentary unit to new heights in the six years since its inception, with Machine Gun Kelly’s Life in Pink (2022), Look at Me: XXXTentacion (2022), Hillary (2020), and Fyre Fraud (2019). Balaban describes “widening the aperture” as the documentary unit’s “big picture goal” and says that she wants to help grow the platform’s young and diverse audience base, according to Variety.
Looking forward to 2022 and beyond, Hulu’s documentary unit will see the release of Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons, directed by Matt Tyrnauer and detailing former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner’s involvement with Jeffery Epstein. Additional upcoming titles include a docuseries about Giancarlo Granda, a pool boy who was reportedly involved in an affair with Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his wife Becki, and another docuseries focused on Larry Ray, a criminal mastermind who cultivated a following at Sarah Lawrence College while living out of his daughter’s dorm room.
Captive Audience is currently available to stream on Hulu. Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons is set to be released on July 19th; further information on the two upcoming docuseries is currently unknown.