Comedy-Focused Dropout “Determined To Be Unique” In Streaming With Shows Like ‘Game Changer’ & ‘Dungeons & Drag Queens’

Ryan Fleming

May 21, 2024 at 2:30 AM·3 min read

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There are a lot of streamers out there, but none quite like Dropout. “I’m a determined hipster,” jokes Dropout owner and CEO Sam Reich. “I can’t do anything that the rest of the industry is doing — I’m just too determined to be unique.”

Unique is not difficult to find on Dropout, which was created in 2018 as a subscription service for CollegeHumor content before CHMedia rebranded to Dropout in 2023. Take Game Changer, hosted by Reich, where the premise changes every episode and the contestants must learn the rules as they play. This season alone has seen an elaborate version of Simon Says, a parody of The Newlywed Game and a simple trivia game-turned-scavenger hunt where contestants need to search the studio for buzzers to answer questions.

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There’s also Dimension 20, an anthology series where a group of improvisors play role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. “It all began with Dimension 20 on TikTok in late 2020,” says Reich. Noticing a correlation between social media popularity and subscriber growth, Reich took it a step further by asking if there was a way to reverse engineer a show that markets itself effectively on social media. “We’re in a unique position to answer that question, because we are making the content as well as distributing it.”

From there, new shows like Make Some Noise and Very Important People allowed for easily cut clips to be posted on social media, leading to what Reich refers to as a “dizzying” growth for the streamer. “We just had our third biggest month on the platform ever, and the average Dropout subscriber is sticking around for well over a year and a half.” This puts Dropout’s Lifetime Value, which is the average amount a customer will spend on the service in their lifetime, well over $100. “For a $6-a-month subscription, that is saying something.”

This growth has led to new series, like Smartypants and the recently announced Thousandaires which Reich is particularly excited about. “My favorite ideas are ones that are elegant enough in their simplicity,” he says. “It’s like a loose competition show where four comedians think of creative ways to spend $1000 to make the show entertaining in some way.”

Dropout has also announced a series of live specials called Dropout Presents, which will be available on the streaming platform at a later date. “This is rooted in the conversation of what’s our version of a standup special? We’re trying a couple of standup specials, improv specials featuring familiar faces from the Dropout platform and a couple of shows I saw at the Edinburgh Fringe this past year. We’re in a unique position to be able to do this and it feels like we’re bringing something to that space that hasn’t been done before.”

Perhaps the most exciting of all, the opportunity to work with four queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race in a season of Dimension 20 titled Dungeons & Drag Queens. “I’m a huge Drag Race fan and I’ve been trying to make this happen forever,” says Reich. “Now the queens are part of the Dropout family and we’ve had them in a bunch of other shows and talk to them all the time. It’s a dream come true for me, because Drag Race is basically my baseball.”

This year Dropout has also entered the Emmy race, submitting Game Changer for Outstanding Game Show, along with Reich for host and editor Sam Geer for picture editing, and Very Important People for Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Variety or Drama Series along with host Vic Michaelis.

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Comedy-Focused Dropout “Determined To Be Unique” In Streaming With Shows Like ‘Game Changer’ & ‘Dungeons & Drag Queens’