Will you watch? Facebook pays big to stream Marshawn Lynch reality show
Outside of his ability to run the the ball on the football field, Marshawn Lynch is largely an enigma to NFL fans. And it seems he likes it that way.
The running back, who came out of retirement earlier this year to play for the Oakland Raiders, in the city where he was raised and continues to invest in, says precious little in front of reporters, and even his retirement announcement, on Twitter during Super Bowl 50, was an emoji and a photo. But Lynch isn’t quite so quiet when the cameras are filming him for commercials.
He’s figured out how to do things his way.
And now Lynch let cameras follow him around for his own reality show, called “No Script.”
According to Reuters, Lynch did the show with Bleacher Report, but Facebook, which recently jumped into the original programming business through its Watch feature, is paying B/R “millions” to exclusively stream. It’s not known exactly how much money Facebook paid for the content.
[Enter the $150K Baller football contest. $10 to play and $15K to 1st place]
“We think we have a big hit on our hands,” said Rory Brown, president of Bleacher Report. “People are going to spend more time on Facebook because of it.”
There are eight episodes of “No Script,” each running 10-15 minutes. It will begin streaming on Facebook this month, though after an agreed-upon length of time, Facebook will lose the exclusivity rights and B/R will be able to stream the show as well.
The first episode shows Lynch driving a race car.
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr recently told NFL.com that Lynch is “hilarious,” so hopefully that side of him is on display during “No Script.” Given Lynch’s appeal – this summer, NFLShop.com reported Lynch’s jersey was the highest-selling jersey in 12 states, including Indiana, Washington and Arizona, which have their own teams – it’s likely Facebook will get a lot of Beast Mode fans hoping to see the man who once declared he’s “all ’bout that action, boss.”
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