Juventus’ star player Cristiano Ronaldo (that felt weird to type) has made headlines this past week for two reasons. We all know the first one. But you may have missed that Facebook is in early talks with Ronaldo to create its biggest original Facebook Watch series yet.
Reportedly, this Ronaldo reality show would be in a format similar to the highly successful Tom Brady documentary series “Tom vs. Time” which followed the New England QB during his 18th season in the NFL last year, which has been viewed over 50 million times on Facebook.
Facebook is prepared to go all in on the project, with Ronaldo standing to make around $10 million for 13 episodes. The series is created by CAA and Religion of Sports, a company founded by Tom Brady and Michael Strahan among others.
This isn’t the first time Ronaldo and Facebook have linked up. Facebook has already ordered a scripted drama series for Facebook Watch from wiip, Ronaldo’s media studio. This series follows a high school girls soccer team in New York that transcends sport to bring light to racial, ethnic and class differences in their community. Facebook Watch has seen success in their sports programming, with “Ball in the Family”, which follows LaVar Ball, Lonzo Ball, and their family, and the aforementioned “Tom vs. Time” is some of their most-watched series on the platform.
Ronaldo is immensely popular worldwide, having played in the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, and now the Italian Serie A. He is also the most popular athlete on Facebook with over 122 million followers and with his move to Italian giants Juventus, this series couldn’t come at a better time, and fans will definitely tune in to see why Ronaldo left Real Madrid, and how he’s faring at his new club in Turin. This series is poised to be a huge success for both Cristiano Ronaldo as he looks to extend his global brand and Facebook as they look to solidify Facebook Watch as a premier location for video content.
Categories: Broadcast, Commercial, Facebook, La Liga, Streaming