After the Stunning Success of THE LAST DRIVE-IN Shudder Has Big Plans for Joe Bob Briggs
Josh Millican
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Horror fans have long considered Shudder a must-have streaming service; while smaller than Netflix and Hulu, they focus specifically on the horror genre and, in that capacity, their selection can’t be beaten. They even have original content that will give anything else horror-related on the Internet a run for its money!
While Shudder’s popularity and rise can both be described as meteoric, they reach new heights of popularity following a 24-hour movie marathon on Friday the 13th last July. The live event was hosted by Joe Bob Briggs and was so well attended, hordes of horror fans crashed Shudder’s servers! Clearly smelling the potential for big bucks, Shudder just announced that they have big plans for Briggs; additional marathons, of course, but also unique holiday specials!
Here’s the full scoop from today’s press release:
(September 5, 2018, New York, N.Y.) After the unprecedented 24-hour event The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs “broke the Internet” in July, Shudder will bring back the iconic horror host for Thanksgiving and Christmas specials, to be titled “The Dinners of Death” and “A Very Joe Bob Christmas.” Shudder, AMC’s premium streaming service for thriller, suspense and horror, also announced plans to launch a regular series featuring Joe Bob in 2019.
“The response to our first marathon was overwhelming, and we can’t think of a better gift for our members than to bring Joe Bob back for the holidays,” said Shudder GM Craig Engler. “We’ve been hard at work with Joe Bob and his team to make these new marathons unforgettable events, and we have even bigger plans for 2019.”
Joe Bob Briggs adds, “In November we’re turning Black Friday into Red Thursday with the best deadly-dinner movies in history, and in December we have a very special way to fill that void felt by American households ever since ABC stopped airing the ‘Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey’ Claymation special.”
This holiday season, set an extra place at the table for Joe Bob: “The Dinners of Death” is scheduled to air on Thursday, Nov. 22, followed by “A Very Joe Bob Christmas” on Friday, Dec. 21. Both marathons will be streamed live and feature films hand-picked by Joe Bob himself, with special guest stars and Joe Bob’s signature brand of Drive-In deep-dives and commentary.
Details for the Joe Bob series will be announced in early 2019. Both the marathons and the series will be produced by Matt Manjourides and Justin Martell and directed by Austin Jennings.
The Last Drive-In originally streamed live on Shudder on Friday, July 13, and trended nationally on Twitter during its entire 24-run, with celebrities like Stephen King and Jonah Ray tweeting about it. The demand temporarily took down Shudder servers, leading fans of Joe Bob to proudly proclaim that their hero “broke the Internet.”
Joe Bob Briggs has long showcased the best and worst of shock and schlock cinema as the host of The Movie Channel’s Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theatre and TNT’s MonsterVision. The Last Drive-In is a celebration of exploitation and genre cinema and a return to Joe Bob’s legendary irreverence and wit.
Did you watch (or attempt to watch) The Last Drive-In? Are you excited for more Shudder exclusives featuring Joe Bob Briggs? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
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