Roku will add 23 more titles from the Quibi library to the Roku Channel this Friday, including the the Emmy-nominated Mapleworth Murders, a spoof of Murder She Wrote starring Paula Pell, J.B. Smoove and John Lutz.
Four of the shows will be new series that never aired on Quibi before the shortform video app shuttered in late 2020, including a cleaning competition show hosted by Leslie Jordan, Squeaky Clean, and another competition series hosted by Josh Groban, Eye Candy, where celebrities must determine if an everyday object is real or actually made out of cake.
A 10-part docuseries directed by Marina Zenovich, What Happens in Hollywood, will also drop on The Roku Channel, as will the second season of Thanks a Million, executive produced by Jennifer Lopez.
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Other new additions to The Roku Channel include series that previously streamed on Quibi such as The Andy Cohen Diaries; Fierce Queens, a Reese Witherspoon–narrated nature series; Elba vs. Block, a car stunt show featuring Idris Elba and the driver Ken Block; and Survive, a thriller starring Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins.
The new additions come shortly after Roku, which acquired 75 shortform shows from Quibi in January, released the first batch of 30 shows to the Roku Channel in May, rebranded as Roku Originals. Since then, Roku Originals have made up all five of the top TV programs streamed by active accounts on the Roku Channel, the company said.
“It’s really proving to be an important driver for the Roku Channel,” Colin Davis, the head of scripted content at Roku, told The Hollywood Reporter. “Bespoke, exclusive shows [are] driving new viewers, and then that’s what advertisers want, so it yields us more ad dollars, which then allows us to reinvest in more great series.”
The “bulk” of Roku’s investments and content will still continue to come from its more than 175 licensing partners, according to Dallas Lawrence, the head of communications for the Roku Platform Business, but the company will scale up its investments into Roku Originals based on the growth of the Roku Channel.
“When you have the scale of 70 million reach, you start to have some really unique opportunities come to you,” Lawrence said. “What you’re going to see is a continued diverse approach from the business.”
Alex Weprin contributed additional reporting.
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