We were already well aware Tubi is betting big on creators, but if we hadn’t been aware, its 2026 NewFronts presentation would have made that 100% crystal clear.
Last week, the Fox-owned platform announced a partnership with TikTok where the pair will launch “Creatorverse Incubator,” a program designed to surface short-form creators from TikTok and help them develop long-form series for Tubi.
The first participants for that initiative aren’t slated to be revealed until this summer–but Tubi is also picking up creator programming outside of the incubator.
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During its splashy NewFronts presentation hosted by actress/comedian Tiffany Haddish, Tubi announced it’s signed deals for original sports programming from YouTubers Jesser and Deestroying.
- Jesser’s series, called Jesser’s Ultimate Kickoff, is a Tubi-exclusive show that will follow “Jesser and friends as they take on fun and crazy soccer challenges ranging from scoring goals, jumping in mystery pools, winning prizes, and competing against increasingly more difficult defenders,” per its official description.
- As for Deestroying, his original content (also Tubi original/exclusive) will “[blend] sports, competition, and creator-driven storytelling, capturing the energy of digital-first fandom and the crossover between athletes, creators, and culture,” Tubi said in a press release.
We see why Tubi is going after these two creators. Jesser is having a real moment lately, and sports programming has become a surefire winner in the realm of digital content. Tubi knows that; on top of Jesser and Deestroying’s shows, it greenlit a partnership with Apple TV where it’ll offer exclusive altcasts of 2026 Formula 1 races. It specifically says that content is meant to “expand F1’s appeal and broaden access for new, younger, and more digitally native audiences.”
But speaking of Jesser and Deestroying…
Tubi is, of course, hoping to target Gen Z and even Gen Alpha with these creator-led shows–and it’s hoping they’ll stick around for other youthful programming, too.
It announced plans to release two Gen Z-targeted scripted shows, Game On and Remember Me.
- Game On follows a “talented gamer” named Casey who is “ready to win her high school’s first esports tournament. But when she discovers her online arch-nemesis is Theo, the charming new kid she’s starting to crush on, Casey decides to stay undercover and use their budding romance to study his moves in video game Eon Rush and take him down from the inside. With her supportive dad reminding her who she is beyond the headset, Casey’s carefully calculated plan begins to unravel as fake feelings turn real.”
- In YA supernatural murder mystery Remember Me, teenager Shari Cooper has been murdered by one of her friends. “Now she has to solve her own murder from beyond the grave, before the relentless, soul-sucking Shadow that’s stalking her gets to her first.”
Outside of new content announcements, Tubi unveiled a flurry of interactive ad formats that mirror what we’ve seen on other platforms: pause ads, connected TV ads that transform into Buy me! push notifications on users’ phones, and “Scene Sense,” an overlay that “surfaces relevant details about what a viewer is watching including casting, soundtrack, trivia, and more.” (Just, you know, also with an ad.)
Anjali Sud, Tubi’s CEO, said the platform is committing to creators because “the future of entertainment is built on fan passion.”
“As the second largest Free AVOD platform and the growing home for Gen Z, Tubi is the only streamer built from the ground up to turn passion into performance for advertisers,” she said. “With massive scale, original and exclusive programming on the pulse of culture, and industry-leading investments in ad tech, precision and measurement, we are helping advertisers achieve greater reach, relevance and efficiency at a time when they need it most.”
Tubi has raw data to back up these assertions. Its recent The Stream report showed that 67% of U.S. consumers prefer watching content made by creators over content made by legacy entertainment entities. This tide in creators’ favor is likely to only swell further–and Tubi plans to catch the wave.
