It looks like Vice is going to have to eat a helping of crow now that it’s been revealed that Desus & Mero had a better debut on Showtime than they ever had on Viceland.
As The Hollywood Reporter states, the show starring The Kid Mero and Desus Nice had 151,000 viewers during its Feb. 21 premiere. That number is 40 percent higher than the duo’s same-day average when the show was on Viceland. In other words, the brand is stronger than ever.
This news flies against the salty statement Vice’s CEO Nancy Dubuc gave to Elle last year when she alluded that the duo’s audience wouldn’t pay for Showtime.
“They’re going to a platform that their audience doesn’t pay for,” she said. “I told them, ‘You can always come back.'”
As I wrote at the time, Showtime is a network that many Black viewers pay for thanks to shows like Lena Waithe’s The Chi. “If anything, the duo stands to make even more fans thanks to their move from Viceland.” It turns out I was right.
You can watch The Bodega Boys on Desus & Mero every Thursday at 11 p.m. ET.
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Microaggressive Much? Vice CEO Gets Petty About Desus And Mero’s New Showtime Series
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