Racing ahead: Why platforms like Tubi are asking creators to make programming

YouTube creator Kinigra Deon is used to churning out videos quickly. But when she made Speed, a seven-episode Tubi-exclusive series about street racing, going fast took on a whole new meaning.

In December, Deon and Tubi, with the help of creator platform Spotter, released the original show as part of the Tubi for Creators program, which rolled out in June 2025 in an effort to expand the free streamer’s original and creator-led programming. Deon was one of six creators part of the program’s initial cohort, and Speed is her first Tubi-exclusive project. The opportunity arose when Tubi identified a gap in its programming, and Spotter founder and CEO Aaron DeBevoise, who has previously worked with Deon as one of the investment company’s spotlighted creators, realized that Deon could provide the content to fill it.

The only obstacle? Deon had an approximately 40-day timeline to shoot, produce, and deliver the final product.

“In my view, that’s unheard of, but that’s the power of Kinigra and her studio and just how creatively focused she is,” DeBevoise told Marketing Brew. “I know she wished she had more time to do [quality control] and all those things that you would do, but it’s just an amazing thing to know that this is why they’re such great partners, creators, and ad-supported platforms.”

Off to the races

While Deon was already part of the Tubi for Creators program, DeBevoise said that Spotter helped position her content as the right direction for the opportunity. Deon had previously produced racing-related content for her YouTube channel that performed well, and she already had the script for Speed and two initial episodes filmed as a pseudo-follow-up ready to go when Tubi came knocking.

Even with a script in hand, the timeline was tight. Deon told us that once Tubi accepted Speed, she realized that the initial two episodes needed to be reshot to meet her own standards.

“We get the first edit of the two episodes, and I’m like, ‘What the hell is this?’” Deon said. “Beautifully shot. The story makes absolutely no goddamn sense.”

So she went back to the drawing board, ultimately bringing Speed to life between late November and early December. She said that she came into the process “extremely arrogant,” thinking that she and her team could get six episodes done in the typical day-per-episode timeline they were accustomed to. But with additional production constraints from the nature of shooting with cars and the story’s primarily nighttime setting, Deon said the production process blew past her initial turnaround expectations.

Even though Speed wasn’t the speediest, it was still leagues faster than what traditional Hollywood studios would have been able to pull off, according to Rich Bloom, GM of creator programs and EVP of business development at Tubi.

Bloom credited part of that speed to Tubi’s no-notes approach, which he said can allow creators to operate with more creative freedom.

“Creators really know what their fans and broader audiences want and have this ability to move really quickly,” Bloom told Marketing Brew. “She didn’t have to go back and forth with us on the script.”

DeBevoise said that as creators keep pushing into the traditional Hollywood sphere, their quick turnaround times and total-package process may pleasantly surprise partners, allowing them to continue to be taken seriously.

“People are finding out [and realizing], ‘Wait, I can actually depend on these creators more than I’d maybe even be able to depend on Hollywood,” DeBevoise said.

Take a (Hart)beat

Speed isn’t Deon’s only project for Tubi. She brought a library of her YouTube content to the platform when she joined Tubi for Creators last year, and she’s also been working on her first feature-length film. The movie, a thriller called Sundown, is being produced with Spotter and Kevin Hart’s entertainment company Hartbeat, and it will debut as a Tubi Original, according to Bloom.

The film process differs from both Speed and her thrice-weekly YouTube productions, Deon said, but with the support of a Hollywood name behind her, she’s enjoying a slower timeline with no set deadline, which allows for more care toward storytelling.

Sundown is currently set to start filming in early spring, Deon said, but she said her instinct was to start production this past December—a reflection of her “go, go, go” mentality, which her partners had to remind her wasn’t necessary this time around.

“They’re like, ‘This isn’t about speed,’” Deon said. “And I’m like, ‘Okay. All right.’”