Movies

Roku Channel Is The Latest Streamer To Remove Original Programs, Including Reno 911 Revival

Reno 911! The Roku Channel
By Witney Seibold/

R.I.P. Quibi, again.

It seems even the Roku Channel is not free from The Great Streaming Purge of the 2020s. According to a report in Variety, over 35 notable Roku Original shows are to be removed from the streaming service sometime in the near future. This comes after multiple other services have removed shows and movies, many of them high-profile releases, from their feeds in order to cut costs. HBO Max — now merely Max — infamously removed a lot of their original films back in August of 2022, while multiple TV shows and movies were taken off of Hulu and Disney+ in May of 2023 for similar reasons. One might assume that a free, ad-supported service like the Roku Channel would be free from the caprices of the streaming market, but that is not so. The line of Roku Originals will be brought to an end. 

Roku Originals, some may recall, were not Roku originals. They were all originally part of the library put out by Quibi, the short-lived, phones-only streaming service that lasted from April to December 2020. Quibi presented TV shows and movies in 7-to-10-minute chapters and were meant to be consumed in public, on trains, waiting in line, etc. It launched in the middle of COVID-related lockdowns, however, and having short-form entertainment on the go was the last thing consumers were demanding. 

In April 2021, the Roku Channel purchased the vast catalog of Quibi's TV shows and movies, rebranding them as Roku Originals. It was Quibi's second death. As of September 2023, the Roku Originals are now being deleted. Quibi shall now die a third time. Roku, in deleting the shows, will incur a hefty "content impairment charge" related to "removing select existing licensed and produced content from company-operated services on its TV streaming platform."

Quibi's third death

Anna Kendrick, Dummy The Roku Channel

Quibi, along with New Coke, the Virtual Boy, and the Edsel, is now considered one of the greatest business blunders of all time. This doesn't mean, however, that it wasn't a fascinating media experiment and that their films and TV shows were bad. Indeed, their resurrection on the Roku Channel would allow curious viewers who never subscribed to Quibi a chance to see what the defunct phones-only service had to offer. Notably, Quibi revived the cult Comedy Central series "Reno 911!" The show's seventh season was its Quibi season. 

To be removed from the Roku Channel, via Variety: 

  • "Reno 911!" 
  • "The Fugitive" with Kiefer Sutherland.
  • "The Most Dangerous Game" 
  • "Survive" with Sophie Turner
  • The creep-fest "The Stranger" 
  • The revived dating show "Singled Out" 
  • "The Andy Cohen Diaries" 
  • The reality show "Elba vs. Block" 
  • The Tye Sheridan thriller "Wireless," one of the best films of 2020 (No, I'm not kidding). 
  • "Dishmantled"
  • "Murder House Flip," a series as weird and creepy as it sounds.
  • "Eye Candy"
  • "Squeaky Clean"
  • "Big Rad Wolf," a documentary about American Apparel.
  • "Fierce Queens"
  • "Gayme Show"
  • "Memory Hole"
  • "Iron Sharpens Iron" 
  • "Nice One!" 
  • "Eye Candy"
  • "Cup of Joe" 
  • "Murder Unboxed"
  • "Gone Mental With Lior" 
  • "Benedict Men"
  • "The Sauce"
  • "Run This City" 
  • "Let's Roll with Tony Greenhand" 
  • "Barkitecture" 
  • "You Ain't Got These," a reality series about sneaker culture.
  • "About Face" 

Roku Originals that were not on Quibi, but that will still be removed from the service include "The Newsreader," "Panhandle," "Slip," "Moving the Needle With Dr. Woo," and "Surprise, We're Pregnant." A separate Variety report found that the Roku Originals weren't drawing new viewers to the channel. The deletion came after the service laid off 10 percent of its staff. It will cost Roku $55 to $65 million to delete these shows. 

Farewell, Quibi/Roku Originals. We hardly knew ye.

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