An important occasion in the life of a new streaming service is when it starts handing out new seasons to its early shows, since it sends a message to the public that the executives in charge of the service are confident that it’ll still be around in a few months—and they’re so confident that they’re willing to put some money on it. That brings us to Quibi, the phone-based streaming service that’s completely defined by executives being willing to put money on something (specifically founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman). According to Deadline, the platform has just announced its very first renewal, with the Tituss Burgess-hosted cannon-based cooking show Dishmantled getting a second season.
Dishmantled was one of the highlights of Quibi’s initial qurop of shows, with Burgess blasting blindfolded chefs with a food cannon and then tasking them with figuring out what the food was and then recreating it for a panel of judges. Fun! And now there will be more of it.
This seemingly reassuring news comes as things haven’t been going super great for Quibi, which of course stands for “quick bites of content.” It reportedly only managed to land 300,000 downloads on its first day back in April and Katzenberg inexplicably pinned the platform’s struggles on the coronavirus pandemic (because nobody’s streaming stuff on their phones these days apparently). If Quibi is paying for more Dishmantled, even if it is a relatively simple show that can’t be too expensive to produce, things must not be too apocalyptic.