Hulu has picked up the first season of the Thunderbird Films’ crime drama Endgame from Lionsgate.

The Canadian crime drama, comprising 13 episodes, will debut today in the U.S. on Hulu and the Hulu Plus subscription service.

Showcase ran the Shawn Doyle-starring Endgame procedural for one season from March 2011 before its cancellation.

The series, produced in association with Front Street Pictures, was created by Avrum Jacobson.

Doyle plays the Russian chess master Arkady Balagan, who works as a detective, solving mysteries with the help of an unlikely band of Vancouver hotel employees and chess fanatics.

After Showcase jettisoned Endgame, Thunderbird Films mounted a social media campaign to possibly finance a second season, contingent on an American broadcaster being secured for the Canadian series.

The sale to Hulu signals the Endgame producers are looking to squeeze what remaining revenue there is online after series fans from as far away as Brazil, Britain, France, Australia, Germany, Spain and Russia earlier downloaded digital episodes of the crime thriller.

“The emergence of new digital partners like Hulu have dramatically extended the longevity and significantly increased the syndication opportunities for premium content like Endgame,” Lionsgate president of worldwide TV and digital distribution Jim Packer said Monday in a statement.

Endgame is distributed internationally by Endemol.