Quibi Employees Are Reportedly Pissed That Reese Witherspoon Got A $6 Million Deal Amid Layoffs
Have you downloaded Quibi? Apparently, no one has recently. The streaming service which based its whole platform idea on delivering short content meant to be taken in quick bursts has been struggling during the coronavirus lockdown. It seems people don’t want to watch short clips of Chrissy Teigen making arbitrary legal rulings and shit when they could just binge Netflix for twelve hours at a time. Quibi has laid off some employees and cut overtime for others. Meanwhile, Reese Witherspoon got a $6 million check to narrate one of Quibi’s worst-performing shows.
Quibi is partly run by Jim Toth, who JUST so happens to be Reese’s husband. Former Disney boss, Jeffrey Katzenberg, founded Quibi and Jim left his job with CAA to work as head of content acquisition and talent. Despite wrangling huge-name talent–like Reese and Jennifer Lopez and LeBron James–the company has not found the success it wanted. Its launch in May saw 3.5 million downloads and 1.3 million active users, which Jeffrey was not pleased with–saying in May:
“It’s not up to what we wanted. It’s not close to what we wanted.”
The company has reported $1.7 billion in funding, but subscription fees and advertising are “crucial” to continue making content. Many 90-day free trials are ending soon, so who knows who will be left afterward. Quibi has also dropped completely out of Apple’s Top 200 apps.
And a source told Page Six that Quibi has cut overtime for its lowest-level staff and has also “quietly let go” of some. Well, it’s quarantine so it would be hard to angrily take a shit on your ex-boss’ desk when working from home. One source said that the “mood is dark.”
Reese did voice work for the show Fierce Queens, a nature show about female animals who are leaders of their species. It’s covered cheetahs, hyenas, and ant queens suggesting we, “Imagine a world where females call all the shots.” Well, now you can imagine a world where females are overpaid because here we are. Page Six was told that the show has been one of the weakest performers on Quibi and it’s making people mad that she was paid so much. One source said:
“Quibi may have to implement cutbacks, and people are fuming that stars like Reese got paid millions.”
I must say I am sad for Zac Efron. He almost died for his Quibi show, and for what?!
But really, Reese is married to one of this mess’ founders and she couldn’t do the job for cheap? Although, maybe $6 million for a few days of work is cheap to Reese. And I’m totally expecting a 12-part Netflix docu-series on how Quibi is a money-laundering front.
Pic: Wenn.com