CBS overcomes imposter syndrome and finally announces Among Us show
Last seen in Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion, Among Us was a pandemic blessing but has since disappeared from the zeitgeist
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Though the time to announce an Among Us television series was approximately three years ago, that’s not stopping CBS. Variety reports that CBS is loading up the Skeld with red, blue, and green astronauts for an animated adaptation of Among Us. However, here is some promising news for this late-to-the-game adaptation: Infinity Train’s Owen Dennis will serve as creator and executive producer of the show.
For those who didn’t give it a whirl during the deepest, darkest days of the pandemic, Among Us is a whodunit multiplayer video game set on a spaceship. A crew of multi-colored, though otherwise nondescript Intel astronauts attempt to weed out an “Imposter” who attempts to rid the ship of its crew via murder. It’s essentially the “Mafia” party game with a bit of The Thing thrown in for good measure.
During its height in 2020, Among Us was pulling in 500 million active monthly users. But people weren’t just playing it. They were watching it too. Among Us attracted over 4 billion views on YouTube and 1.22 billion on Twitch. Notably, that year, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put butts in gaming chairs to watch her play with a handful of popular streamers, including Pokimane and DrLupo, as a get-out-the-vote drive. Over 400,000 concurrent viewers tuned in to what became one of the most-watched streams in Twitch history.
But that was at its peak. By the time Among Us popped up in Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion, the shine had worn off, and audience groans could be felt through the screen. Or so we thought. In 2022, a VR version of Among Us reportedly sold over 1 million copies as of January 2023, which shows what we know about the popularity of both Among Us and VR headsets. In the last 30 days, Among Us had more than 60 million monthly active players, with over 4 million playing concurrently at its height. So, despite the snark, some people still care about Among Us.
7 Comments
Someone I follow online is utterly fascinated by those “finger family” videos, where anything algorithmically popular with children is hastily animated together using stolen assets and a totally out-of-character, nonsensical plot.
These bootleggers beat Five Nights at Freddy’s and Among Us (as well as Poppy Playtime, which is extremely popular to bootleg, for some reason) to an official adaptation by several years.
I’m guessing it’s a popular bootleg because it seems in and of itself like such a blatant rip off of 5 Nights at Feddy’s.
My 10-year old will be thrilled.He’s already assured me he won’t be frightened by the FNaF movie.
I really want the twist to be there is no imposter and the crew have just gone stir-crazy and paranoid after being in space for so long. I don’t think CBS is capable of producing something with that much acid in it, but I can dream. I’m glad Owen Dennis is getting a cheque, though.
Why would this not be a gameshow?
Right? My first thought was “reality contest show”. One part Survivor, one part Masked Singer, with some silly “murder” mechanic built in. I would say it writes itself if reality shows had anything like actual writing to them. Or writers. Nobody has writers anymore.
Yeah, the closest thing would seem to be that British show with Alan Cumming hosting it. Similar dynamic. Just do that but on a fake spaceship.