Fans of The Chosen have reason to celebrate, as the showrunners have finally announced when Season 4 will be available for streaming. The fourth season of the hit show on the life of Jesus Christ as told by the Gospels released in movie theaters during Lent, but a dispute between The Chosen LLC (the production company) and Angel Studios (the distribution company) has delayed its release to streaming services for over a month.
Schedule of release
Dallas Jenkins – who writes, directs, and produces The Chosen, all while somehow finding time to act as CEO of the LLC and ceaselessly promote the show via live-streams – announced the streaming release and explained the situation in an emotional video from The Chosen’s YouTube channel.
Season 4 of The Chosen will officially release for streaming on Sunday, June 2, 2024, at 7 pm Eastern Time (ET).
He went on to discuss several changes to their streaming services, the biggest of which is that it will no longer be available to stream on the Angel Studios app. At its first release, Season 4 will only be available to stream on The Chosen app, which will remain free to use.
Additionally, there will be an option available to buy the complete Season 4 DVD set at The Chosen’s gift store, for those who do not wish to wait for the week-to-week releases.
For the entire month of June, The Chosen will release two episodes per week: The first on Sundays at 7 p.m. ET, and the second on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET. The eight episodes of Season 4 should be up and available to stream for free by the end of June.
Jenkins was firm when he pledged that once an episode releases it will be available to stream for free for all time, although it may not be free “at first;” for instance, any future theatrical release would require the purchase of a ticket.
While Jenkins did mention that the season would eventually find its way to streaming services like Apple TV, Google TV, Fire TV, Roku, and TheChosen.tv – streaming services which already offer the previous seasons – he noted that it is important for the show’s revenue that it be limited to The Chosen app at its inception.
Why the delay?
The revenue, Dallas explained, was one of the primary reasons for The Chosen’s break from Angel Studios. It was clear right from the start of the announcement that, while the end of this contract is good for The Chosen, Jenkins never wanted this situation to occur.
He explained that the arrangement was not sustainable, as The Chosen is responsible for funding the show in its entirety, but only about 40% of what was crowdfunded by Angel Studios actually reached the show. This is the condensed version – the full, complex story took Jenkins close to 10 minutes to explain – but the ending of this contract means that now 100% of any funds donated to The Chosen will be put towards the show.
He cleared up a misconception that The Chosen LLC and Angel Studios were involved in a lawsuit, noting that they sought 3rd party arbitration, as was their right in their contract. The arbitrators reviewed the situation and found that Angel Studios breached the contract “in multiple and material ways.”
Still, it was heart-wrenching to watch Dallas make the announcement. After stating, “The Chosen’s relationship with Angel Studios is effectively over,” the man had to pause as he became visibly distressed. He had to swallow back his emotions and he glanced off to the side as his eyes turned glassy. Dallas looked as though he never expected to say such a thing.
With a distraught expression, the showrunner noted that “we take no pleasure from this” before reiterating the immeasurable role that Angel Studios and the Harmon Brothers (founders of Angel Studios) played in getting The Chosen off the ground. “We came to the conclusion that we simply had no choice for the future of our company and this show and the law agreed.”
Watch The Chosen Season 4 on The Chosen app, free of charge, on Sunday, June 2, 2024. Then tune in each Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET and Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET to watch all 8 episodes as they release through the month of June.
And today we celebrate...