Hulu's 'stop suggesting' button fixes misfire recommendations

Now you can tell Hulu to stop recommending shows you've already watched or really just really don't want to watch ever, thanks.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter

Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.

Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials

Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)

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Joan E. Solsman

May 16, 2018 10:00 a.m. PT

2 min read

Hulu is going to let you ban shows from future recommendations, so you'll never be pitched that series you already binged elsewhere or anything else you'll never want to watch.

Hulu is introducing options to give subscribers more control over what it recommends.
Sarah Tew/CNET

The feature, a button labeled "stop suggesting," will let Hulu subscribers tell the streaming-video service when recommendations in its Home tab are misfires. By clicking it, you'll remove the series, movie or sports league from being recommended to you again, according to a post on Hulu's blog Wednesday. The feature will begin rolling out to Android and iOS subscribers next week.

Hulu also announced that you'll be able to remove titles from your watch history to give you more control over recommendations too. In addition, the service is making it easier for people who subscribe to its live-TV option to get straight into live television with fewer taps: A dedicated live-TV destination will take you directly to live playback on your most recently watched channel.

And Hulu's simplifying watching on a big screen even if you're away from home by introducing the options to plug in to an available HDMI port if you use iOS or to cast to an available Chromecast device.

It also refreshed its look in a web browser. A "built-for-web" experience will roll out to live-TV subscribers starting next week, and additional subscribers will start seeing the new hulu.com throughout the summer.

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