Athens, Georgia, Chick-fil-A restaurant, fast food walk up window.
Dinner and a movie? Chick-fil-A apparently wants to be your one-stop shop.
On Aug. 21, Deadline reported that the fast-food chain, known for its chicken sandwiches and Banana Pudding Milkshakes, is launching its own streaming platform along with a slate of original programming.
Chick-fil-A has been reportedly working with “a number of major production companies” to create “family-friendly” shows, many of which will be reality TV, and is also in talks to license and acquire content. Discussions of scripted content and animation are also apparently on the table.
According to Deadline, this includes a family-friendly game show from the company behind NBC’s “The Wall,” as well as Sugar23, the same production company behind series including “13 Reasons Why,” “The OA” and “True Detective.” Deadline reports that the Sugar23-produced show has secured a 10-episode order.
Sources tell Deadline that the chain is thinking of a late 2024 launch.
Chick-fil-A declined TODAY.com’s request for comment.
But this isn’t the first time Chick-fil-A has gone down this programming path: In 2021, it produced a series of short, animated films called “Stories of Evergreen Hills.”
Plus, Chick-fil-A is owned by the Cathy family, whose independently managed trust helped found Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. The studio frequently works with Marvel and is where “WandaVision,” “Loki” and “Ant-Man” were filmed.
Social media users, as you can imagine, had plenty of thoughts on the chicken chain’s latest venture into entertainment.
“Wait what,” wrote one Instagram commenter, mirroring the surprise felt by many other commenters.
“Stream what? Shows about religion?” asked another. (For context, Chick-fil-A’s founder S. Truett Cathy’s devout Christian beliefs have influenced many of the company’s values.)
“No because you’ll be off the air on Sundays,” joked another Instagram user, wondering if the chain’s streaming service will mirror its restaurants’ closed-on-Sunday policy.
“Lemme guess, it’s all Chick Flicks?” joked one more.
“And it’s a Chick-Fil-A original movie, Liz” https://t.co/XDaazrAIN1 pic.twitter.com/k71gdf58k9
— Tom Zohar (@TomZohar) August 21, 2024
“And it’s a Chick-Fil-A original movie, Liz,” posted one user on X along with a picture of “30 Rock” character Jenna Maroney Jane Krakowski), an actor who frequently starred in peculiar and off-beat films, music and commercials.
“If Chik-fil-a can afford to spend millions of dollars on a streaming platform, they can afford to pay their workers a living wage,” wrote another X user. (Chick-fil-A restaurants are individually owned and operated by franchisees; the average hourly rate for an employee is about $13.43.)
“I can see this as a cross between the hallmark channel and a worship network,” predicted one Reddit user. “As long as they’re not publicly traded they can do whatever they want with their money.”
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