Comedy Streaming Service Seeso to Shut Down

Original shows like “HarmonQuest” are moving to a new home on VRV, company announces

Seeso, the comedy-centric streaming service that served as the home for original shows from comedians such as Dan Harmon and Jonah Ray announced Wednesday that it’ll be shutting its virtual doors.

The company made the announcement on its Facebook page, adding that its shows will be moving to a new home over at VRV, which also houses Crunchroll, Funimation, Machinima and other online streaming channels.

“You can now find ‘HarmonQuest,’ ‘My Brother, My Brother and Me,’ ‘Hidden America with Jonah Ray’ and ‘The Cyanide and Happiness Show’ on VRV,” the company wrote.

It’s unclear what the status is of other Seeso shows like “Bajillion Dollar Propertie$.” Seeso reps haven’t responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Seeso had one show in the pipeline waiting to air. “There’s…Johnny!” is a show starring Tony Danza, Ian Nelson and Jane Levy about a man from Nebraska and a talent coordinator as they work behind the scenes at “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.” The show was created by Paul Reiser and David Steven Simon, who conceived of the show 17 years ago.

“There’s…Johnny!” was supposed to premiere in August, but now it’ll air at a later date, Seeso said. “We love this show and can’t wait for everyone to see it.” the statement said.

Seeso has been in trouble for a while, with chief Evan Shapiro parting ways with parent company NBCUniversal in May. NBCU digital enterprises president Maggie Suniewick took over his responsibilities.

Later in June, the company was hit with layoffs, with multiple employees getting reassigned to other departments at NBCUniversal.

Shows that were set to premiere or air new seasons on Seeso since the shakeups have been postponed. The second season of Dan Harmon’s animated “Dungeons & Dragons” comedy “HarmonQuest,” for example, was delayed the day before its scheduled July 27 premiere. It’s now premiering on Sept. 15 over on the VRV Select channel.

Though NBCUniversal does not release subscriber numbers, TheWrap was told in May that the paid-customer total for the still relatively young platform was in the low hundreds of thousands.

Before the announcement Wednesday, Decider reported that Seeso sold “HarmonQuest” and “My Brother, My Brother, and Me” to Otter Media, which operates VRV streaming services.

You can see the full statement below.

Comments