Roku orders more full episodes of discarded Quibi classic Reno 911!
The Roku Channel is getting four full-length episodes of Reno 911!, which was revived on Quibi last year
The old Quibi shows, rescued from the collapsing tomb of Old Man Quibi (who lived his life in five-minute increments), have all been doing surprisingly well in their new former-home at Roku, which rebranded them as Roku Originals earlier this year when it decided to get into original streaming content for the first time. The shows have apparently been very popular on Roku, but more than that, they actually secured some Emmy nominations, indicating that they truly are legitimate pieces of television storytelling and not, you know, stuff from Quibi. This has all made Roku hungry for more content, specifically exclusive and original content that you can’t get anywhere other than the Roku Channel, and it will be interesting to see how quickly it tries to become the next Netflix or Hulu.
But, until then, they’re just making a few more Reno 911! episode. Reno 911! was one of the more unimpeachable hits of the Quibi lineup, since the show’s vaguely sketch-oriented format lent itself nicely to Quibi’s “quick bites” gimmick, but that also means it’s pretty easy to just take the stuff designed for Quibi and mash it together into proper, full-length episodes. According to Variety, Roku has ordered four additional half-hour episodes of Reno 911! (that’s like eight Quibis at least), laying the groundwork for a continued expansion of its library.
Earlier this month, Roku announced that it was resurrecting canceled NBC musical comedy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist as a one-off holiday special (or at least ostensibly a one-off, as these things tend to get sequels if they’re a hit). More episodes of Kevin Hart’s Die Hart action-comedy are also on the way, so once again we have confirmation of the most important lesson to take away from Quibi’s collapse: The show’s weren’t the problem, Quibi was the problem.