Syfy is getting into the binge-viewing game, scheduling all 10 episodes of the third season of time-travel drama 12 Monkeys to air over the weekend of May 19.

The thinking: it’s a “binge-able” show that could benefit from a viewing stunt that could serve current fans, draw in new ones and maybe generate interest on the ad-sales side.

That’s what Chris McCumber, president of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, said of the plans, which include airing the first four episodes of the new 12 Monkeys season on Friday, May 19, with limited commercials. Syfy will then air three episodes each on both Saturday and Sunday night.

McCumber said he’s not concerned about the short scheduling format hurting ratings for the series. “We believe this is a big event for Syfy,” he said. “For us to go out there and say you can get all of 12 Monkeys in one weekend is a great thing for our ad sales team go out there and sell.”

Syfy also will drop the 10 episodes on the Syfy app the day after each one airs on the network. McCumber said demand from the show’s fans for new episodes convinced the network to offer the unusual binge viewing-ready rollout of the series at the same time it announced there would be a fourth and final season, so that fans knew there was more of the story coming next year.

“12 Monkeys has such a dedicated fan base, and it’s one of the most binge-able shows out there,” he said. “We decided to give a gift to the fans and bring it out in a way that says, ‘Here’s all of them, all at once.’ ”

Syfy — which last week announced coming new originals, including Krypton, a 2018 offering highlighting Superman’s backstory; Happy!, starring Christopher Meloni as a corrupt ex-cop; and Nightflyers, in development from a novel about spacecraft travelers by Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin — is the latest network to adopt a version of OTT service Netflix’s scheduling strategy of offering all episodes of a series at once to encourage binge viewing.

Over the past year premium services Starz (The Girlfriend Experience, Flesh and Bone) and Showtime (Dice) have tried the gambit. More recently, basic-cable service Freeform (Beyond, Famous In Love) has offered its younger-skewing viewers full seasons of original series through linear video-on-demand and digital outlets.

McCumber said Syfy wasn’t planning to give the binge treatment to any other original series, nor has it decided whether or not to offer the fourth and final season of 12 Monkeys — set to air in 2018 — in a similar manner.

“It has to be organic to the show,” he said. “With 12 Monkeys, we saw a rabid fan base, so we said, let’s give a gift to them. In this day and age, the way the marketplace keeps shifting, you have to keep trying new stuff, and we thought this would be the right show to do it on.”

Hulu said its recently launched virtual reality app is now available and viewable on the Oculus Rift, the new high-end headset from the Facebook-owned VR specialist. 

That experience, which requires users to connect the Rift to a high-octane PC, “creates a polished, sharper and highly responsive viewing experience in the Hulu VR app,” Hulu said.

The Hulu VR app, released in March, was originally optimized for Samsung’s Oculus-powered Gear VR platform. The Oculus Rift started shipping in late March. 

Timed with the expansion of its VR app on the Rift, Hulu said it has launched a “new, immersive virtual environment” to watch the first season of Syfy’s 12 Monkeys. Viewers who visit the 12 Monkeys show page will transported to the Temporal Facility, which houses the show’s time machine, Hulu said, noting that it partnered with show executive producer Terry Matalas and production designer John Mott to create the VR experience.

This represents the first “show space” for the Hulu VR app, and more are in development.

The Hulu VR app currently features more than 30 pieces of original VR content for free to viewers with or without a Hulu subscription.

VR will be a big topic at tomorrow’s Next TV Summit in San Francisco, which will start off with a keynote discussion with Ben Smith, Hulu’s head of experience.

The aftershow genre is drawing more networks eager to offer fans more exposure to their favorite hit series — and on more platforms, too.

Network executives said aftershows — the best-known of which is AMC’s live post-The Walking Dead panel show Talking Dead — are a relatively easy way to create original content that serves the big audiences for hit shows, especially in the fantasy and sci-fi realms, at a fraction of the cost.

Syfy is the latest network to dive in, launching a weekly Tuesday night podcast to support the second season of time-travel drama series 12 Monkeys, which launches tonight (April 18). The Talking Monkeys podcast, to be made available at Syfy.com and in the iTunes Store, will feature series creator and executive producer Terry Matalas and cast members discuss the show’s most recent episode.

The goal of Talking Monkeys is to reach 12 Monkeys fans online, Matthew Chiavelli, senior vice president of Syfy Digital, said.

“The 12 Monkeys audience has proven to be ravenous consumers of any of the ancillary digital content that Syfy has created since the show’s premiere last year -- so we saw this as an ideal series to launch a podcast,” Chiavelli said. “12 Monkeys, being a multilayered show with deep, rich storytelling, is perfect for this medium that allows for longer-form discussion.”

Talking Monkeys joins several other after-show series debuting in April. AMC tonight (April 18) will air a live Talking Saul aftershow following the season-two finale of drama series Better Call Saul. The network first aired Talking Saul, hosted by Talking Dead’s Chris Hardwick, after the show’s second season premiere on Feb. 15.

Speaking of Talking Dead, AMC on April 10 launched the series for the second-season premiere of zombie series Fear The Walking Dead, a spinoff of the cable’s top rated series The Walking Dead. A week prior, the Talking Dead that followed TWD’s season-six finale averaged 7.9 million viewers (on a Nielsen-plus-3-day basis). While that was a big drop-off from the 14.1 million viewers who watched The Walking Dead, it was a big enough audience to make the series the fifth-most-watched show of the week, Nielsen reported.

Crossing platforms again, HBO tapped Grantland founder Bill Simmons to create an on demand aftershow for Game of Thrones. After the Thrones will appear on HBO Now, HBO Go and HBO On Demand the Monday after each new Sunday-night Game of Thrones episode, starting April 25.

Last Thursday (April 14) BBC America launched the first after show based on its hit series Orphan Black. After the Black features hosts Ajay Fry, Morgan Hoffman and Teddy Wilson discussing the plot hints and twists of the sci-fi series’ fourth season.

BBC America president and general manager Sarah Barnett said the aftershow allows the network to superserve its Orphan Black viewer fanbase.

“These shows have a raw, unfiltered feeling of true access to talent both in front of and behind the camera — and given how central TV is to pop culture this fuels the conversation in such an organic way,” Barnett said. “What’s more, it’s the most relevant lead out possible to follow a new episode of Orphan Black.” And, she noted, “it’s relatively cost effective.”

“It’s passion, cloned,” Barnett said, playing off the multiple cloned characters Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany plays. “It’s a virtuous circle of feeding and fueling fan love for our show.”  

Syfy and Philips have paired to reveal the first immersive lighting experience for a TV series with. 12 Monkeys.. The Syfy Sync second screen app and the Philips Hue connected lighting system will combine tp provide users with a new experience, the network announced today.

Telefilm Sharknado 2 was the first program where viewers were able to sync their Philips Hue lighting system with the soundtrack. For 12 Monkeys, viewers will get custom light tracks for all 13 episodes of the season.

The series will start Jan. 16 at 9 p.m., when fans will then have the ability to sync up the app to the lighting system. This will also prompt a specially designed “light track," and the app will also detect audio cues that will translate the Web-enabled Hue system.

Syfy will start production on a new scripted drama series based on the 1995 film 12 Monkeys, the network said Friday.

The 12-episode 12 Monkeys series, which follows the journey of a time traveler from the future who goes back in time in an effort to eradicate the source of a deadly plague, will be produced by Atlas Entertainment, which produced the original 12 Monkeys Universal Pictures film which starred Bruce Willis (pictured). The series will star Aaron Stanford (Nikita, X-Men: The Last Stand, X2), Amanda Schull (Suits, Pretty Little Liars), Noah Bean (Nikita, Damages) and Kirk Acevedo (Fringe).

“12 Monkeys is a captivating time travel adventure and high stakes race against the clock,”said Syfy president Dave Howe. “We are thrilled to add it to our slate of engaging and thought-provoking new scripted projects including the recently announced event series Ascension and the second season renewal of Helix.”