BBC’s ‘Twenty Twenty Six’ Sells To BritBox & Tubi Before World Cup

EXCLUSIVE: The BBC’s soccer tournament satire Twenty Twenty Six is headed to not one but two American streamers.

In a rare move, BBC Studios has struck deals with both BritBox and Fox streamer Tubi for John Morton’s six-part sitcom, which sees Hugh Bonneville reprise his W1A role of Ian Fletcher alongside a mainly North American cast including Chelsey Crisp (Fresh off The Boat, Ten Percent), Stephen Kunken (Billions, The Handmaid’s Tale) and Paulo Costanzo (Designated Survivor, Royal Pains).

The series, which is produced by Expectation and launched last week on the BBC, kick offs on May 1 on Tubi (U.S.), BritBox (U.S. & Canada) and Blue Ant Media’s BBC First (Canada).

In Twenty Twenty Six, former BBC Head of Values Fletcher heads to the U.S., Canada and Mexico to help with a highly anticipated soccer tournament. He takes on a new role as Head of Integrity for the Twenty Twenty Six Oversight team, made up of a set of new and colorful characters played by the fresh cast.

Given the setting and American talent attached, Twenty Twenty Six has always been ripe for landing a U.S. co-production partner, although it’s rare for one show to land two non-exclusively at the same time. BritBox is owned by the show’s distributor, BBC Studios, and already airs W1A and Twenty Twelve — Morton’s two previous shows — in the States. Tubi, meanwhile, is a broadcast partner at this summer’s soccer world cup in the U.S. The deal is unusual but not unprecedented. BBC Studios previously sold Jenna Coleman-starrer The Jetty to both BritBox and Hulu.

Twenty Twenty Six is the latest in Morton’s long-running loose satire trilogy that has included Twenty Twelve, which depicted a fictional London Olympic organizing committee, and W1A, which was about the inner workings of the BBC. Speaking to Deadline before Twenty Twenty Six launched sales at MIPCOM, Morton said he loves to write shows about “the gap between big, laudable public mission statements and the Monday morning, ‘How the hell do we do this?’ feeling.” The show lauched last week on BBC Two and iPlayer.

Lawrence Szabo, BBC Studios’ EVP of Content Distribution, North America & LatAm, said Twenty Twenty Six “reflects the cultural moment” with “devastating wit.” “We are thrilled to find such distinct homes for this sports-themed, workplace comedy with Tubi, BritBox, and Blue Ant Media,” he added. “Bringing these three partners together highlights the versatility of our portfolio and our commitment to ensuring that world-class British storytelling finds its way to the US viewers who value it most.”

Twenty Twenty Six is an Expectation production with additional support from OKRE regarding climate and health expertise. The series was commissioned by Jon Petrie, BBC Director of Comedy. The series is written and directed by Morton. The producer is Catherine Gosling Fuller, and the EPs are Paul Schlesinger, Nerys Evans and Morton. The BBC commissioning editor is Emma Lawson.