You can now pay $4.99 to watch people not be funny on TikTok

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Tiktok On iPhone
Tiktok On iPhone (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • TikTok is launching a paid-for comedy show called Finding Jericho.
  • The first two episodes of the eight-episode show will be free.
  • Viewers will pay $4.99 to complete the season.

TikTok is launching a new subscription-only comedy show called Finding Jericho — the show will premiere on June 2 at 9 pm PT and will run for eight 30-minute episodes. New episodes will arrive every Tuesday and Thursday at the same time until it's finished.

The show will cost $4.99 for the entire season, although the first two episodes will be free to everyone with access to TikTok as some sort of trial. Anyone who wants to watch the other six episodes will need to pay up, of course.

THR was the first to report the news and has more details on who will be involved.

In the series, Finding Jericho, [Jericho] Mencke will host comedic interviews with a range of characters — including a clown from Craigslist — as he explores broad themes like laughter, hobbies and confidence. The show is produced by Pearpop, the creator content and collaboration platform co-founded by Cole Mason, Spencer Markel and Guy Oseary. Pearpop executives Zack Bernstein and Austin Sokol, as well as Mencke, serve as executive producers.

While TikTok is normally full of random people trying to be funnier than the last video you were subjected to, this new approach is an interesting one for a couple of reasons. First, it turns TikTok into a legitimate streaming video platform similar to Netflix and others. Second, it could get TikTok fans used to the idea of paying for premium content. TikTok has already begun to make moves in that direction with its new monthly subscription offering that will give larger creators a way to share exclusive content with fans.

Will TikTok one day be the best iPhone app for people wanting to pay for new streaming content? It seems unlikely considering the competition. But that clearly isn't stopping it from trying. From a creator's perspective, it all makes tons of sense. Creators who wouldn't get a show on Netflix now have one on TikTok. Albeit on a platform normally reserved for cat memes.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.