Ashton Kutcher-Produced ‘Going From Broke’ Hits 5M Views In 4 Weeks On Crackle

Dade Hayes

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Going From Broke, an unscripted series about personal debt whose executive producers include Ashton Kutcher, has passed five million views in four weeks on Crackle.

The number was released Friday by the new majority owner of the ad-supported streaming platform, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. The company, which also controls AVOD platforms like Popcornflix, released quarterly earnings on Thursday afternoon. The results reflected the first full quarter of results since the Crackle deal closed in May.

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Revenue hit a company-record $17 million in the period ending September 30, up from $6.6 million in the year-ago quarter. The bottom line was less rosy, with adjusted EBITDA showing a loss of $400,000, compared with positive EBITDA of $3.4 million in the prior-year quarter.

Investors seized on the profit wobble, sending CSSE shares down 8% in the early going on Friday, to $9.15. Bill Rouhana, CEO of CSSE, also disclosed a $1 million hit to revenue in the quarter due to a “some temporary technical issues” with the Crackle app on Roku as its branding got updated. The update left the server briefly unable to deliver “a sizable number of ads,” the CEO explained.

The context of Going From Broke is the $1.5 trillion in federal student loan debt, a tally that continues to grow. More than 44 million Americans are coping with how to pay off that debt, and the show focuses on a handful of individual debt-holders in LA. Financial experts counsel them about how to create a framework for moving forward.

“This show has struck a chord with viewers,” Rouhana said. “There is clearly a need for this important dialogue. We are encouraged by the feedback and are now considering the possibility of a second season.”

Going From Broke is executive produced by Kutcher, Rouhana and Michael Winter for CSSE. For Matador Content, Todd Lubin, Jay Peterson, Joel Relampagos and Jerry Carita are also executive producers.

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