VICE Unveils 2022 – 2023 Slate, Dark Side of the Ring Not Mentioned

VICE TV has announced plans for its 2022 and 2023 programming slate, with no sign of Dark Side of the Ring. The company released the following announcement for its upcoming year of original programming, which includes no mention of any of the Dark Side shows including Dark Side of the Ring, Dark Side of The ’90s or Dark Side of Football.

Dark Side of the Ring has seen three seasons aired thus far, with the most recent season concluding in October of 2021. The show has been VICE TV’s highest-rated show with the third season averaging a 0.07 demo rating and 186,000 viewers, down from the second season’s 0.102 demo rating and 241,000 viewers but roughly on par with season one (0.072 demo rating/201,000 viewers).

VICE Media Group Unveils 2022-2023 Programming Slate
Today, VICE Media Group unveiled their non-stop 2022-2023 programming slate, showcasing new live events, returning originals and insights.

“This year we are making bigger bets and we’re responding to what our audiences have asked for,” said Nancy Dubuc, CEO of VICE Media Group. “We continue to go places others can’t and won’t. Our credibility and authenticity with global emerging youth and established millennials is unmatched – and we have the track record to prove it. Our diverse and dynamic house of brands tailor creative experiences to the people that move culture and business.”

“Research shows that trust in news on social media continues to be very low, yet 90% of people under 35 who know Vice News trust us. We see similar buy-in across all of our brands because our work is authentic, engaging, and our audience believes in our mission,” commented Jesse Angelo, President, Global News and Entertainment. “We are always honest with our audiences, and sometimes that can be gritty or uncomfortable or boundary-pushing. But we tap into cultures and communities that no one else can access and come away with stories you won’t see anywhere else.”

VICE + i-D BASQUIAT: KING PLEASURE – APRIL – DECEMBER 2022

The Basquiat family selected VICE to be an official participating partner of Jean-Michel Basquiat, King Pleasure, a new exhibition telling the story of how Jean-Michel paved the way in the art and creativity world. Coming off the heels of an incredibly successful opening night party at NYC’s Mr. Chow, this partnership promises an innovative experiential and editorial slate throughout the year.

UNBOTHERED’s The Glow Up: Live Event in June 2022

Refinery29’s brand for and by Black folx, announced the launch of The Glow Up, their first-ever live ticketed event – touching down in Atlanta for two days just in time for Juneteenth and in celebration of their 5th anniversary. Going beyond festivals, conferences and beauty pop-up formulas, The Glow Up will bring the Unbothered brand to life through talent-driven programming, creator-made installations, and live entertainment with a focus on self exploration, discovery and IRL interaction. As Refinery29’s leading engagement channel with exponential growth across platforms YoY, Unbothered has been dedicated to spotlighting nuanced stories about the Black experience since its inception in 2017.

R29 STYLE AND BEAUTY CONTENT

Refinery29 is known for its genre-defining style and beauty content which celebrates self-expression, acceptance and innovation. This year, Refinery29 cements a new path for its style content with strengthened inclusive fashion and beauty programming across platforms, such as Gloss Angeles podcast, an apple top 10 beauty podcast which recently joined the Refinery29 family through a licensing partnership, a new inspirational shopping column from Global EIC Simone Oliver, as well as Beauty in Progress a content series focusing on the extremely complicated topic of sustainable beauty.

Through these increased offerings, a continued focus on affiliate and shopping content and the revival of fashion and beauty focused IG channel, @R29Style, Refinery29 will further its legacy as a service brand with a unique audience relationship built on a mutual love for self-expression, style and shopping. Whether highlighting the pitfalls of plus-size fashion offering, tackling what it means to live with alopecia or representing communities or color through Unbothered and Somos, Refinery29 continues to further its legacy of inclusivity across all touchpoints.

Refinery29’s affiliate business, Most Wanted, continues to thrive with consistent revenue growth year over year since its launch in 2018. Most Wanted had its biggest revenue month ever in November 2021 with a +36% increase in revenue YoY and continues to exceed revenue goals MoM in 2022.

50 YEARS OF HIP HOP:

VICE is known for being the trusted source on culture for emergent audiences. August 2023 will bring the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop and every media brand will be lining up to do a retrospective on the “history of the culture”. But VICE (and sub-brand Noisey) are culture creators, predictors of what’s to come. While undoubtedly celebrating the genre’s birth, we’ll be narrowing in on forging the path for the next 50 years of Hip Hop. Expect a 360 approach through video, experiential, social and written formats. Think seeing and hearing the world through one sample but with multiple up and coming producers – CDMX to Senegal! Hip Hop classics reviewed by 14 year olds. A special i-D take on A to Z style. All culminating with an in-person celebration of what’s to come in the world of Hip Hop and a final content drop around the 50th anniversary in 2023.

THE STORY OF: Returning 2022

VICE’s The Story Of returns with a new season, which inspires curiosities you never knew you had. In each episode, we dissect some of the most iconic songs in history – from inception to global explosion. Previous deep dives include Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles, Baha Men’s Who Let the Dogs Out, Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag and more. Coming this season, we sit down with Shania Twain, Sean Paul, Rick Astely and Natasha Bedingfield and more. With over 37 million views, The Story Of continues to bring new meaning to your favorite songs.

VICE NEWS & VICE WORLD NEWS:

We’re meeting young audiences where they are, leading in social in-the-field journalism with explosive growth (1.3m+ TikTok followers for VICE World News since launching in February) and plans for expansion (VICE News Twitch launching soon). Our VICE World News TikTok account grew by over 1.2 million followers in the span of ten days due to our powerful dispatches and helpful explainers about the crisis in the Ukraine. Reporting on the war from correspondents like Matt Cassel, Alec Luhn, Hind Hassan, Ben C. Solomon and Isobel Yeung has collectively received over 32M views on YouTube. Vice News builds trust with audiences through its eye-level reporting on everything from conflict zones to the issues that matter most to young people today — from LGBTQI+ and social justice issues to the future of work and technology in their lives. A perfect example is Transnational, the first-of-its-kind series made by and centered around trans and queer voices from VICE’s newsroom that was just nominated for the prestigious Peabody Award. Season 2 is returning later this year, also coming is Breaking the Vote, a video series looking at attempts to rig the 2022 election, and season 2 of Planet A, looking at solutions to climate change and environmental degradation.

THE CULTURE OF TRUST

VICE Insights, VICE Media Group’s in-house strategic insights arm, has access to data and information that others don’t have. Uniquely positioned to draw information from the breadth and depth of our ecosystem – global creators, transformative generations and culture-defining content – VICE Insights can uncover and contextualize cultural and consumer shifts for brands, for society, and for ourselves. VICE Insights’ latest report, The Culture of Trust, puts an actionable framework around how brands can build trust with young consumers, even in the current climate of distrust and misinformation. The report pinpoints the foundational elements of culture that shape how youth today determine who and what to trust, outlines steps for participating in this culture, and provides tangible examples of how VICE Media Group and other brands have successfully followed these guidelines to build trust. To download the report visit https://www.vicemediagroup.com/insights/

i-D:

i-D has come a long way since it’s launch in 1980 – to celebrate its 40th anniversary, i-D and Rizzoli New York announced the launch of i-D: Wink and Smile!: The First Forty Years, a commemorative book detailing the history and cultural impact of i-D magazine – from hand stapled punk zine to one of the leading global fashion magazines. i-D continues to see growth across printed issues, .com and social media with its most recent Spring ‘Out of Body’ Issue marking the magazines’ strongest sales post-covid with targeted sales distribution strategies in the US and Asia leading to sell through rates bouncing back to pre-covid levels. With a focused approach to vertical video, in the last quarter i-D scaled Instagram Reels views by a huge 1748%. In addition, i-D is having their most successful year to date for audience growth with 32% growth in the last 6 months and a 50% increase in their TikTok followers.