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The New ‘Will Smith’s Bucket List’ Show Is a Big Win for Facebook’s Streaming Service

Facebook Watch surprisingly snagged one of Hollywood’s biggest stars for "bucket list madness"

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Will Smith’s Bucket List/Facebook Watch

“Hey. Don’t ever let somebody tell you can’t do something. Not even me,” Will Smith’s character tells his son in 2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness. Well, now the actor is heeding that advice in the real world by checking off everything on his bucket list, and he’s letting us watch it all unfold in a new series fittingly titled Will Smith’s Bucket List.

In a major catch for Facebook, the social network’s relatively new video-on-demand platform Facebook Watch just dropped the trailer (above) and the show's first episode (below). Smith skydives in the inaugural episode to celebrate his 50th birthday.

“Every time I confront this fear, I feel more free. I wanted my wife [Jada] to skydive with me,” Smith quips in the trailer before shouting out their three children. “Trey and Jaden are going to jump. Willow didn’t come; she told me it’s stupid.”

New episodes will debut every Wednesday, with at least five more already confirmed for the coming weeks. What’s next on his bucket list? Swimming with sharks, running a half marathon in Cuba, dancing in a Bollywood movie, doing standup comedy with Dave Chappelle and racing F1 cars.  

Smith is by far the biggest name on Facebook Watch, which launched in the United States in 2017, followed by an international rollout in August 2018. The service has a steadily growing list of dramas, comedies, reality shows, news programs, talk shows, docuseries and other forms of acquired or original programming.

Facebook Watch has started to offer live sports streaming as well. Notably, it will be reviving MTV’s The Real World, allowing Facebook's 2.32B monthly active users to vote on the show's final winner. 

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