EXCLUSIVE: Drag Race Producer World of Wonder is in the process of shutting that down House on fire. The company has secured the titular reality series for its streaming service WOW Presents Plus.
House on fire is set in New York and follows the preeminent “house” of the ballroom scene, Miyake-Mugler’s house. Produced by ITV America, Good Company and Hey, Man Productions, the film follows house family members and heads of household Yusef Mugler and Exotic Mugler as they juggle the pressures of competition and mentoring their talented cohort. He follows in the footsteps of the documentary film Paris is burning, which offered a first look at New York’s drag ball competitions, voguing and house culture.
“We have absolute confidence that our audience will eat it up,” World of Wonder co-founder Randy Barbato told Deadline. “It’s rooted in ballroom culture, which is a huge inspiration for so many drag dramas, so much of the language is the language of drag, and the show has incredibly compelling characters with big hearts.”
begin House on fire marks a deeper dive into acquired and original programming for WOW Presents Plus. Previous purchases include a catalog of Elvira films and classic puppet series Thunderbirds. The original price includes a stand-up comedy show House of Laughter, Moat Hearts Drag And RuPaul’s Drag Race Live Untuckedwhich takes a look behind the scenes RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! Vegas show.
“It’s a build-it-and-they-come story,” World of Wonder’s other co-founder, Fenton Bailey, said of the company’s streaming service. “It’s similar to when we started [convention] Drag Con, we felt like there was an audience out there that wasn’t being served, and we were also really excited to do more original content with a lot of the artists Drag Race.”
WOW Presents Plus launched in 2017 and is available worldwide. Drag Race was the engine for the SVOD service, with versions available for the US, UK and other international countries. WOW won’t provide numbers, but the company’s founders said that in the first quarter of the year, the number of subscribers increased by 30% and the number of hours watched increased by 75%. Brazil, France, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa and the United Kingdom are the largest international growth areas.
Fenton said he is seeing greater cultural openness to queer content that is no longer considered fringe or niche content, adding that a boutique streamer can connect with viewers in a way that generalists cannot.
“I think one of the challenges for the mega-streamers is how to find something or what point of view to take,” he said. “I think people like to feel like they belong to something and by creating WOW Presents Plus along with Drag Con, our shows on linear channels, Drag Race Live Las Vegas, the experience is more well-rounded and there is an identity .”
Barbato said WOW Presents Plus is “a modern platform with an OG approach…we are non-binary and the platform is non-binary.” He added: “It is not a slave to the algorithm. Our motivation was to tap into a community that we felt was underserved, and we are a part of that community.”
Barbato says the rush for scale in major media has created opportunities for indies and for curated services. “We didn’t want to put Max or Netflix out of business,” he said. “As these massive media empires grow, the irony is that it also creates opportunities for fiercely independent creators and talent – in the shadow of these monoliths, I think there is opportunity.”