'Alpha House,' 'Betas' to premiere on Amazon this month

Amazon says the first three episodes of its new U.S. shows "Alpha House" and "Betas" will be free when they premiere on the website this month. "Alpha House" is to debut Nov. 15, while "Betas" will begin Nov. 22. The first three episodes of each 11-installment series will be available for free for all Amazon customers, with additional episodes made available each week for Amazon Prime members. "Based on customers' enthusiastic response to the pilot episodes we are counting down the days until we can share more of the political and entrepreneurial exploits of our 'Alpha House' and 'Betas' characters. Our goal is to make great TV shows that customers will love and we hope they're going to love these shows," Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, said in a statement Monday. "We will release three episodes upfront for all customers so they can try out the shows and get to know the characters. Then we will release new episodes via Prime Instant Video week by week so that customers can chat about the shows and build up anticipation. We're constantly experimenting and trying new things -- and we're eager to hear customers' feedback on this model." "Alpha House," which was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau and produced by Trudeau, Elliot Webb and Jonathan Alter, is a comedy about four misfit senators -- played by John Goodman, Clark Johnson, Matt Malloy and Mark Consuelos -- who rent a house together in Washington D.C. The show co-stars Cynthia Nixon, Amy Sedaris, Wanda Sykes and Julie White. Set in the land of Silicon Valley start-ups, "Betas" is written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard, and follows four friends as they attempt to strike it rich with a new mobile social networking app. Joe Dinicol, Karan Soni, Jon Daly, Charlie Saxton, and Maya Erskine star in the show, with special appearances from Ed Begley Jr.