Chick-fil-A Is Turning to Reality Television

The Big Picture

• Chick-fil-A plans a family-friendly streaming service with unscripted content like game shows.
• They are working with Glassman Media to create 30-minute episodes with a budget of $400,000.
• Brian Gibson, known for shows like The X Factor, is leading the project with Sugar23’s Michael Sugar.

The popular chicken fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A is getting into television now. In an exclusive with Deadline, the company has plans to launch their own streaming service that will focus on family-friendly content that is unscripted. It is also reported that the company has already been talking with studios and will be attempting to license and acquire other types of content as well. Their unscripted content will include, according to Deadline, game shows as well as other kid-friendly options for families to watch.

The gameshow they are working on is reportedly from Glassman Media. Glassman Media is responsible for the American version of the NBC series The Wall and other popular game shows. According to Deadline, the budget for the shows include $400,000 per 30-minute episode and the plan is to get the platform running this year. They do not only want to have unscripted programming, and they’re working on scripted and animation projects as well. Chick-fil-A is not the only company to venture into television/content production. There are shows like Lucky Lyft (hosted by Bob the Drag Queen) that brought brands into the entertainment industry (the show was a Lyft production).

Deadline reported that Brian Gibson, who has a history of working in unscripted television with shows like the American version of The X Factor as well as Top Gear, is leading the project. He will be working with Michael Sugar’s Sugar23, which has produced shows for streaming platforms in the past like Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. This is not the first time that the company has done something entertainment-based based though. They also produced a series of animated short films titled Stories of Evergreen Hills. Chick-fil-A declined to comment on the Deadline piece but two of their sources said that this was a good move for reality television.

Other Companies Have Done This With Mixed Results

Platforms like Quibi and Seeso were created to bring original content to fans in an easy-to-watch format. Quibi, much like this Chick-fil-A streaming service, mixed reality television programming with original content. The app was launched in April of 2020 and was closed by December of 2020. The distinct difference being that Quibi was designed to watch on your mobile phone and it was a time when everyone was stuck at home and not watching content on mobile devices. Chick-fil-A’s streaming service being geared toward family-friendly content will be a first for streaming platforms.

Stream great reality programming on Peacock.

Stream on Peacock