Hulu’s ‘Shut Eye’ Renewed for Season 2 — With New Showrunner (Exclusive)

Hulu is keeping its Eye open.

The streamer has handed out a second season renewal to drama Shut Eye, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. John Shiban (Hell on Wheels, Da Vinci’s Demons) will take over as showrunner, replacing David Hudgins (Friday Night Lights), for the drama’s 10-episode second season. Production on the series will also move from Vancouver to L.A. for season two.

For his part, Shiban will reunite with exec producers Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein after collaborating with the duo on AMC’s Breaking Bad. Sources note Shiban signed an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television. Hudgins, also based at SPT, joined midway through season one and exited to focus on a script for CBS that ultimately was passed over for a pilot pickup. Shiban is repped by ICM Partners and counts The X-Files, The Vampire Diaries and Legend of the Seeker among his credits.

Shut Eye, starring Jeffrey Donovan and KaDee Strickland, was picked up straight to series in October 2015 and is a darkly comedic drama set in the underground world of Los Angeles storefront psychics and the organized crime syndicate that runs them. It revolves around a disgruntled player in the organized crime syndicate who finds his cynical worldview challenged when he starts to experience visions that may or may not be real.

The series was created by Les Bohem (Extant) who exec produces alongside Johnson and Bernstein via their Gran Via Productions banner. The drama hails from Sony Pictures Television’s TriStar Television banner.

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Hulu shifted its weekly release pattern to a binge model with Shut Eye, releasing all 10 of its first-season episodes Dec. 7 as part of a push to capitalize on the holiday period, when viewers tend to have more time to consume content.

The series launched to mixed reviews — it has a 50 rating on Metacritic and user score of 6.1 — with THR‘s Daniel Fienberg noting Donovan and Strickland delivered “fine performances,” but noting that the series had “no real identity.”

Emmanuelle Chriqui, David Zayas, Angus Sampson, Susan Misner and Isabella Rossellini co-star.

Shut Eye joins a roster of Hulu originals that also includes Casual, Chance, Difficult People, The Mindy Project, The Path as well as upcoming series Castle Rock, Hard Sun, The Handmaid’s Tale and Future Man as the streamer, which is currently looking for chief content officer, continues to build up its scripted roster.