The Red Green Show: Finding a New Generation of Duct Tape Fans

Ever wonder how the Red Green Show wound up on your living room TV? We sat down with Loren Wilson, CEO of SPACEMOB, the Global Distribution Company that distributes the Red Green Show and Channel through major streaming services to learn more. 

Please tell me a little about SPACEMOB and how it started working on the Red Green Show/Channel- What about the Red Green Show attracted SPACEMOB to want to distribute it?

SPACEMOB is an independent global media company that distributes TV content and curates, builds, and delivers FAST channels to all the major streaming platforms. We started working with S&S Studios, the family business that owns the rights to the Red Green Show, about three years ago when we realized the show was not anywhere to be found in streaming. The show was incredibly popular when it originally aired back in the 90s and early 2000s, and there are people on our team who watched the show regularly growing up, and they loved it. We looked closely at the audience, engagement, and overall chatter online and decided we needed to represent it and get it into streaming, which is what we did. It is now either a dedicated channel or available on demand from every major free streaming service. 

Can you please share some insights for our viewers about the resurgence in the popularity of The Red Green Show over the last several years, given the distribution you have done for the show?

I don’t know that the popularity of the show ever waned. People were always watching reruns that ran on a handful of local PBS stations and YouTube, albeit much less frequently. The fact that we got it widely distributed on all the major free streaming services made it much easier to find and consume. The fact that it is so widely distributed into streaming today has given the show a new audience of viewers who may be discovering the show for the first time. What has been a little surprising to us is that in the three years we’ve been distributing the show, the monthly hours of viewing continue to grow. With over one billion viewing minutes and counting the show is undoubtedly popular. And even though there hasn’t been a new episode in nearly a decade. we saw a record number of hours of viewers on the show just last month. It really has stood the test of time. 

Could you please share some of the most interesting demographics in terms of viewership that the show has realized since reintroducing it via streaming platforms? 

The show is watched primarily by men across Canada and the US. Because the cast is Canadian and the show was filmed and produced in Canada, it is often considered a “Canadian show,” but our largest segment of viewership is by far in the US.

We hear from Red Green fans often, and they like to share how they have introduced the show to their wives, sons, daughters, and even grandchildren. We get fan mail all the time. Sometimes, they are super creative. We just received a duct tape card from a fourteen-year-old fan that was so thoughtful. While I am unsure if the younger folks are as passionate as their dads and grandpas, it’s great to see the show being well-received by multiple generations.  

What do you think is so special about The Red Green Show that it can attract fans from multiple generations? 

First, the show is funny. Humor can transcend generations, so that’s probably the biggest thing. The other thing is that there really is nothing like it on TV. The blend of scripted and sketch comedy and the mockumentary-style setting of a hapless handyman who leads his local lodge is unique yet relatable. People just can’t get enough.