CBS is letting viewers travel through another dimension for free — but just this one time.
CBS All Access on Monday dropped the entire first episode of its new reboot on The Twilight Zone on YouTube, making it available even to those who don't subscribe to the streaming service. In the anthology show's premiere, "The Comedian," Kumail Nanjiani plays a stand-up comic who begins joking about aspects of his real life on stage, only to experience very Twilight Zone-y consequences.
If that episode hooks you on Jordan Peele's reboot, the bad news is that this is the last one you'll be able to watch for free. The rest of the show is exclusive to CBS All Access, the network's subscription service that starts at $5.99 per month. A second episode, "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet," is currently streaming, with episodes then being released every Thursday.
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The Twilight Zone is the latest example of CBS taking a series with a massive amount of interest surrounding it and plopping it on its streaming service without airing it on TV or allowing it to stream anywhere else. But CBS is playing a long game here, hoping to eventually build up a large library of original streaming content and a base of subscribers in order to compete with the likes of Netflix. CBS All Access is also where Star Trek: Discovery lives. The streaming service had 2.5 million subscribers as of last August, per Variety.
CBS sure hopes this well-reviewed opening episode will make viewers want to unlock the door to more, with CBS All Access' executive vice president of original content telling The Wrap last week, "It feels like this is going to be big for us."
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