WOW Presents Plus announces new Originals
October 10, 2023
Ahead of their attendance at MIPCOM, World of Wonder (WOW) has announced three new originals to take audiences behind the curtain, to the front row and up-close-and-personal with the most talented, hilarious and fierce Drag Queens in the land.
The new slate of content – the recently announced behind the scenes look at the hugely successful RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! Vegas show, RuPaul’s Drag Race Live Untucked; stand-up comedy series House of Laughs hosted by RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series 2 winner, Lawrence Chaney, and starring special guests including Joel Kim Booster (actor, comedian, producer and writer who co-produced and wrote for Big Mouth), Danny Franzese (actor best known for his roles in Bully and Mean Girls) and Jimbo (recent winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Series 8); and their first non-English speaking commission with Drag Race Brasil host, Grag Hearts Drag – will all be available to stream on WOW Present Plus in the future, one of the only streaming platforms to be owned by a truly independent production company – World of Wonder (WOW).
These three new series join hit WOW Presents Plus’s incredible existing slate of original content, including the newly premiered off-the-wall, over-the-top and under-the-wig series, Avalon TV, which features LA’s hottest creative collective – The House Of Avalon, alongside Tongue Thai’d With Pangina Heals (returning for a second series this December), Ts Madison Ate That, Jimbo It’s My Special Show and UNHhhh with Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova.
In addition to the new slate announcement, the “home of all things drag”, WOW Presents Plus, is celebrating its most successful year since launch and is the only place to watch multiple versions of one of the biggest franchises in the world, RuPaul’s Drag Race, alongside over 1,500 hours of ambitious and diverse content – from Drag Races in 17 different countries and originals with Drag Race alumni, to award-winning documentary films World of Wonder have produced.
In a challenging streaming landscape, WOW Presents Plus is not only turning a profit but becoming more profitable year on year since launching in 2017. Outside of the US, there has been a 32 per cent increase in subscriptions in the first half of this year off the back of the success of RuPaul’s Drag Race Series 15, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Series 8 and a host of new original content being available exclusively on the platform. WOW Presents Plus are also celebrating a 16 per cent increase in content offering in 2023 so far compared to 2022 and have seen time spent on the platform rising to over 40 million hours in the first half of 2023.
World of Wonder co-founder, Fenton Bailey, says of WOW Presents Plus’s growth in 2023: “We always say, ‘it takes a village, people”. We are so thrilled to see the hard work of our team, partners and the incredible artists we are honoured to work with, engaging our loyal audience and reaching new viewers in record numbers.”
World of Wonder co-founder, Randy Barbato, says on the announcement of WOW Presents Plus’s new slate of content: “These three upcoming originals are truly everything we love about our shows – they are unique, hilarious and not afraid to push boundaries. Fans can expect to be reunited with old favourites and find new ones as we celebrate fresh talent as well as Drag Race legends that we know our WOW Presents Plus family love to keep up with. We’re especially excited to announce our first non-English speaking commission with Grag Queen following the huge success of Drag Race Brasil for us earlier this year. It was our biggest ever non-English speaking premiere on the platform!”
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (which recently premiered its 5th series on WOW Presents Plus globally, excluding the UK and Canada where it airs on BBC Three and Crave respectively) has been the largest subscriber drive to date for the platform and with three new originals and two international iterations of Drag Race still to drop on the platform before the end of the year, plus an exciting 2024 lineup, WOW Presents Plus expects to see a continued steady growth.