For many of the Internet’s most hard-core users, Black Friday poses a particular dilemma, as the season’s most coveted toys and gadgets can be obtained at deep discounts — but only if would-be shoppers are willing to venture outside and jostle with the masses.
This holiday season Reddit, the site that proudly calls itself “the front page of the Internet,” is offering a solution. Redditgifts, a gift-exchange program that spun off from a subreddit four years ago, will hold its first-ever livestream event, the Redditgifts Shopping Network, on Nov. 29, otherwise known as Black Friday.
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The 12-hour livecast, which will stream on Reddit’s YouTube channel as well as other online outlets, will feature demos of products (available at redditgifts.com) as well as comedy segments and on-air AMAs, reddit’s popular ask-anything sessions with celebrities and other notable personalities. Reddit plans to begin announcing its talent participants — which will include musicians, actors and “maybe even former heads of state,” the company tells The Hollywood Reporter — and product lineups in the coming weeks, and says that it is working with nonprofit organizations to include public service announcements in its broadcast.
“We decided to give people a way to experience the holiday chaos without having to venture outside,” the company tells THR. “We hope it will become an annual Thanksgiving tradition, like the Macy’s Parade and the Detroit Lions losing.”
