(NewsNation) — Chick-fil-A, the nationwide chain of fried chicken sandwich shops known for its Christian ownership and being closed Sundays, reportedly wants to get into the TV streaming business.
Deadline.com reports the chain is working with several producers to create family-friendly shows to stream on its own channel. The report says the plan is to emphasize unscripted, or “reality” shows. It may also license and acquire existing shows.
Sources tell Deadline the timeline calls for a launch later this year.
Chick-fil-A would join other non-entertainment firms with entertainment ambitions. Lyft has produced a game show, and Airbnb backed a documentary called “Gay Chorus Deep South” that aired on MTV.
Chick-fil-A operates more than 3,000 restaurants across the U.S. Following the Southern Baptist believes of its founder, S. Truett Cathy, Chick-fil-A stores are closed Sundays, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
The company’s support of same-sex marriage opponents led to boycott attempts in the early 2010s, but never seriously affected sales. Chick-fil-A has topped the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index for fast-food restaurants for ten straight years.
There is no word whether the channel may include a reality show about Chick-fil-A itself. While there are many restaurant competition shows, as well as programs that focus on one person’s food quests, reality-style shows inside a restaurant are few and far between.
The most successful may be “Cake Boss,” featuring the staff of Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey. “The Restaurant,” which aired for two years in the early 2000s, documented the tension inside a startup Manhattan restaurant headed by celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito.
In 1999, the British documentary series “Boiling Point” followed then-unknown chef Gordon Ramsay as he opened his first restaurant in London and shared with the world his explosive temper in the kitchen.