How To Watch ‘A Discovery Of Witches’ In The US

UPDATE: Feb. 9 — AMC Networks announced that “A Discovery of Witches” Season 1 will make its way to network TV this spring. Season 1 will start airing on AMC as well as BBC America on Sunday, April 7 at 9 p.m. EST. It will still be available on the streaming platforms mentioned below.

Original story: The wait is almost over for U.S. fans. “A Discovery of Witches,” based on the bestselling Deborah Harkness novel, is finally coming to the small screen stateside, but viewers will have to make sure they have the right streaming subscription first. The show is not on Netflix or Hulu.

“A Discovery of Witches” will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 17 at 3 a.m. EST/12 a.m. PST. All eight episodes will drop at once, and it can be watched on two streaming services: Shudder or Sundance Now.

To sign up for SundanceNow, which has a lot of original dramas like “Riviera” and “The Split,” simply go to the website. New users can get a week-long trial for free, and subscription plans start at $4.99 a month for the service.

Shudder, on the other hand, focuses on horror and suspense, but signing up is the same. Users should go to their website to start a free trial, and plans start from $3.99 a month.

Both Shudder and Sundance Now can be watched on computers, tablets and phones or via Apple TV, Roku, Xbox One, Fire TV and Chromecast.

“A Discovery of Witches” Season 1 follows Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer), a witch who wants to ignore her magic. That gets difficult once she finds a long-lost manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library that just happens to be bewitched. The historian then meets Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode), a vampire and geneticist, who wants the book.

Author Deborah Harkness is an executive producer on the new TV series, which debuted in the U.K. last year. The writer told International Business Times that she was very happy with the cast of “A Discovery of Witches.”

“It’s a collaborative creative process. Nobody controls it, but I did have input for sure. I was just so thrilled with the casting of both of them,” Harkness said. “They embody these characters. People say they look right. Well, it goes so far beyond look. What you need is for somebody to be able to convincingly occupy their skin. This is what Theresa and Matthew do so brilliantly in the show.”

Read the full Q&A with Deborah Harkness.

Alex Kingston, Valarie Pettiford and Owen Teale also star in the eight-episode first season.

New Sundance Now and Shudder subscribers should consider keeping their subscriptions after they finish the first season. “A Discovery of Witches” has already been given a second and third season, meaning Harkness’ entire trilogy will be adapted.