If you’re online all the time like me, then you probably follow Chrissy Teigen on social media. She is one of the most active celebrity tweeters with most of her tweets going viral. She’s known for being incredibly honest, candid and truly hilarious. She’s regarded as one of the most “relatable” celebrities, vocalizing her obsession with all things Bravo and calling her trolls out. She’s cultivated such a following through the years and her cultural impact cannot be understated, given her past as a supermodel (idk if you’ve ever heard of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, but she was the rookie of the year in 2010 and was the cover star in 2014). Since then, she has released two cookbooks and now has launched her own website where you can read up on new recipes and her hottest restaurants, interact with her directly and more. She’s also married to John Legend, one of the most famous singers in the world, and their family includes extremely cute children Luna and Miles. The couple recently gave us even further insight into their lives through their Vanity Fair cover story last month, in which they discussed their family lives, history, Trump, Kanye West and so much more. It was one of the best cover stories I’ve read in a while. This is all to say that I, like millions of others, love Chrissy and will follow pretty much anything she does. Her next venture is Chrissy’s Court, where she essentially acts as a Judge Judy-figure, except all the problems are extremely small and petty. Chrissy is truly the Petty Queen, although I do my best to match her. Now this sounds exactly like primetime Chrissy Teigen content that I definitely want to be a part of, but here comes the but… BUT it’s on the new streaming service Quibi.
WTF is Quibi you might be asking? It’s yet ANOTHER subscription streaming service that will only be available on your phone and is set to launch in Spring 2020. The company is founded by former Disney and DreamWorks chief Jeffery Katzenberg and e-Bay and Hewlett Packard alum Meg Whitman will serve as Quibi’s CEO. Over 30 projects are already slated for their first year launch – the plans are to spend over $1 billion on content. More stars than you can count have already signed on, including Steven Speilberg and Guillermo del Toro. The Oscar-winning directors are slated to bring horror series to the platform. Other names involved in the platform: Kevin Hart, Naomi Watts, Idris Elba, Tyra Banks, and Jennifer Lopez. They’re even remaking How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. The key to this platform is that all of the shows will only be 7-10 minutes long to really capture the Gen Z audience whose main source of content comes from short videos from already existing platforms like TikTok and YouTube (yikes… am I old?). There will be two different price skews; $5 a month with ads or $8 a month for ad-free content. If you’re curious about the platform itself, there’s tons of information already public. I think it’s a really smart idea as video-consumption has skyrocketed in the past few years, but it’s not particularly appealing to me. I can’t just openly watch these episodes at work and it’s easier to listen to a podcast, and when I’m home I want to watch on my much larger TV instead my phone. However, I’m guessing that’s a personal problem.
This is all to say that 1. I do not want another streaming service. We already have too many. PLUS in the Spring we’re also supposed to be introduced to NBC’s Peacock and HBO’s new service HBOMAX (will HBO ever explain to us what the difference between HBOGo, HBONOW and HBOMAX are?? Probably not, but HBOMAX will have Friends and a Gossip Girl reboot so that’s all that matters). 2. I blame Chrissy Teigen. Although my film nerd status is obvious, I probably wouldn’t care about a majority of the slated content, no matter how star-studded it is at the moment. This even applies to Steven Spielberg’s horror series because I hate horror (well-documented). So damn you, Chrissy. Because of you I have to not only know what Quibi is, but also probably spend $5 stupid dollars on it a month because I’m addicted to your content. It better be worth it.
