In celebration of launching an expanded Creative section, well-known video game streaming site Twitch kicked off an ultra-marathon of every episode of the seminal American landscape painting instructional show ‘Joy of Painting’ with Bob Ross.
Perhaps it is a surprise to no one, but the archives of the late Ross — who sported an afro, rehabilitated injured squirrels and spoke often about “happy little trees” — did incredibly well on the site. So much so that the company announced today that it will stream ‘Joy of Painting’ weekly for charity.
During the marathon, Twitch told TNW it experienced:
- 545,880,000 minutes watched
- 5.6 million unique viewers
- 3.8 million KappaRoss emotes in chat
- 7.6 million chat messages sent in Bob Ross channel
- 183+K concurrent viewers
The company will continue this momentum by showing one whole season of ‘Joy of Painting,’ in order, on the /bobross channel every Monday from 3pm PST to 9:30PM PST. ‘The Joy of Painting’ spans an astounding 31 seasons, so even with Twitch’s aggressive play schedule, the episodes will only recycle every 7 months.
Additionally, on October 29 — Ross’s birthday — the channel will run an all-episodes marathon.
Twitch broadcasters are also invited to participate in the fun by restreaming the broadcast and painting right along with Mr. Ross.
Currently, there are ads on the /bobross channel, and Twitch says that the proceeds from the extended play of this channel will go to the rights holders of ‘The Joy of Painting’ and Twitch Creative community support, as well as charities. Specifically, money will go to San Francisco arts initiative Root Division as well as St. Jude.
The series starts with season one today.
➤ Bob Ross [Twitch]
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