Given the rather, um, stressful state of the world of late, it completely tracks that stand-up remains an extremely popular genre on Netflix, with 60 percent of the streamer’s subscribers watching at least one comedy special last year. But beyond driving a lot of viewing time on the platform, the genre has also proven to be a very successful incubator for nurturing other original Netflix programming — movies, TV shows, a giant comedy festival, and, starting Wednesday, a weekly talk show starring John Mulaney.
This isn’t completely new for Netflix: The success Aziz Ansari had with his early stand-up work on the service helped lead to Master of None, while Ali Wong’s blockbuster numbers no doubt played a part in convincing the service to go forward with Beef. But as Netflix has expanded its stand-up talent roster — more than 200 comics have done specials for the streamer over the years — it’s become increasingly adept at figuring out how to let some of those comics multitask. And because Netflix spends so much money on “content,” there are constant opportunities for the streamer’s unique brand of synergy.
Michelle Buteau, for example, has done two Netflix specials and later this month returns with the second season of her comedy series Survival of the Thickest, having also hosted unscripted shows The Circle and Barbecue Showdown on the platform. Similarly, after Leanne Morgan headlined a special for Netflix in 2023, the streamer paired her with sitcom legend Chuck Lorre and green-lit 16 episodes of a half-hour comedy built around her. And while Mulaney was already a Pretty Big Deal before Netflix — he had worked with a Canadian producer named Lorne Michaels — the streamer has been a steady source of employment for him over the last decade, ordering five stand-up specials, eight seasons of Big Mouth, and last May’s six-night event series Everybody’s in L.A. — the show which helped birth the aforementioned Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney.
While Netflix is no stranger to the talk format — you can still stream all 120 episodes of Chelsea — it hasn’t really had much luck turning its weekly talkers into hits. But Mulaney’s new endeavor will vary from its predecessors because it will air live around the globe, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET for at least the next three months. That live element offers no guarantee the show will succeed, of course, but it should help it stand out amid the sea of programming on Netflix and the traditional pre-taped network late-night shows. Plus, while it’s unlikely Mulaney will let the show turn into a plug-o-rama for other Netflix series, it does seem logical he’ll once again invite on many of his fellow Netflix stand-up stars, giving the streamer yet another way of strengthening its ever-expanding comedy universe. That may be one reason why Robbie Praw, the veteran Netflix exec who oversees that sprawling stand-up empire, says he wasted no time wooing Mulaney to do a regular show after Everybody’s in L.A. wrapped: “We started the conversations pretty much immediately.”
So Everybody’s in L.A. had a ton of great buzz, won a TCA Award, and even an Emmy for, randomly, picture editing. Based on that, I’m guessing doing Everybody’s Live was a no-brainer. But according to your semi-annual ratings report, it turned out the audience for L.A. wasn’t huge: an average of 1.1 million views per episode. What made you do this show anyway?
Well, there’s only one John Mulaney. He’s such a singular artist that when presented with the opportunity to do this with him, like you said — it was a no-brainer.
But you do look at data still, right? Is there something you see in the numbers you get — which go much deeper than what’s made public — that gave you more confidence in green-lighting this? Or is it really more about gut and taking a chance on talent?
If you look, John Mulaney is not only one of the most viewed stand-ups on Netflix, he is one of the top ticket-selling stand-ups in the world. So we have a lot of confidence that the new show that we’re doing, Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney, is going to break through. These types of shows have always grown over time. And again, there is nobody like John out there. If you watched SNL50, with 50 years of some of the biggest stars in comedy, John Mulaney stood out in that room and on that show. So we have a lot of confidence in him and in this new show.
How soon after Everybody’s in L.A. wrapped did you start talking to Mulaney about doing more? It sort of seemed like initially he was not inclined to do more, or at least had no plans to do so.
I don’t want to use his words, since I don’t remember what they were exactly, but John had a lot of fun with the fact that there were no stakes with Everybody’s in L.A. because he couldn’t be renewed. But he came to this honestly. What we did last May wasn’t a pilot. It was truly being done as a six-day show. And then, he was so great and so natural in that seat, I think we started the conversations pretty much immediately to see if he’d be interested in building a new show for Netflix.
And how long did it take for him to agree and sign on for more?
The honest answer is I don’t remember the timetable. But we knew this was something that we were eager to do. John obviously has a very busy touring schedule and a lot of things going on, so we were happy that we were able to put it together in ten months.
You’ve hinted that this new show won’t simply be a continuation of what John did last spring. Beyond the fact that there probably won’t be as much of a hyperfocus on Los Angeles, can you offer any hints about what we’ll see when it premieres?
The only thing I’ll say is Richard Kind will be there. Much like when you asked me a very similar question when we talked a year ago, I’ll leave the details of the show to John. But certainly, fans of what he did with Everybody’s in L.A. will love this show, and we’re expecting lots of other folks to discover it for the first time as well.
Well, I had to try again. But if you don’t want to talk details about the new show, perhaps you could explain the evolution of the show from your end. I imagine with one of his stand-up specials, you just write him a check and he does his thing. Is it the same on a series like this? Or is there more of a collaboration?
Well, first of all, John’s an exceptional collaborator. Not only is he the host of the show, and a writer on a show, he’s also a phenomenal producer. And for the most part, the best thing that an executive like myself can do when working with someone like John, and on a show like this, is to get out of the way. He’s been super collaborative, but the truth is, every meeting that I have with him in which he gives me details about the show, I leave giddy. So really, this is truly his show, his vision.
We sometimes hear about Netflix giving its producers notes based on what your data says about viewing habits. But with something like a live talk show, is there even that much data-driven feedback you can give him? I mean, the biggest data point you have is: “Our members watch a lot of Mulaney.”
I mean, really — there is no science to this. This is such a singular show, that there’s truly nothing even to compare it to, and that’s what makes the process so exciting.
What about the Los Angeles aspect of the show? The city isn’t in the title anymore, but will it still embrace the L.A. of it all?
Certainly there will still be that component. This is definitely a show being shot in L.A. that will feature the town as well. But I think we’re going to also be looking at the rest of the country as well, and the rest of the world, because this is going to be streamed live around the world.
Netflix has done weekly talk shows, and talk-adjacent shows, with everyone from Chelsea Handler and Joel McHale to Norm Macdonald and Michelle Wolf. Other than David Letterman’s project, they didn’t really stick. Was it the live aspect of Mulaney that made you revisit the idea? And if this one does work, will it get you back to making a lot more talk shows again?
It’s not something we’re focused on. I mean, this show — we weren’t looking for a show like this. This show exists because we had the opportunity to work with John Mulaney, and we think there are things that you could do live that are just really, really exciting for the viewer. We’re definitely going to be looking at doing some things live when they make sense, but it’s not necessarily a concentration.
What about a live sketch show then? You’ve done great stuff on tape such as I Think You Should Leave. Now that live shows are becoming common on Netflix, don’t you want your own version of SNL?
Oh, I think down the line we’d be open to it. You’re bringing up SNL and 50 years of some of the best television of all time. I’m sure we would love to one day be in that business. But: No plans for it at this point.
I want to move on to what’s maybe the biggest part of your portfolio at Netflix — stand-up. You’ve done over 300 specials in the last ten years, and I think most of them are still on the platform. You’ve got this huge library now that can feed that itch audiences have for stand-up. Does having established that big library have an impact on how much you green-light now? You don’t need as much as you did early on when you were starting from zero.
It hasn’t affected our volume at all. What it has done: It’s given more of a journey to when people discover their new favorite comedian on Netflix to be able to see more from that comedian or similar comedians. A recent example of that is Nate Bargatze had a pretty huge special for us that came out this past Christmas and it’s been great to see all of his old specials being watched so much over the last period. Or Mo Amer just released his comedy series last month and you’re seeing more viewing on his old specials. So it’s great that not only do we have all these new specials popping up, but there’s a lot of comedy fans that watch a large amount of specials a year and they often start with that new thing and then go back and discover some older great work by the same artist.
You also used to regularly make headlines for paying crazy sums of money to comics for their future specials. I’m sure you are still writing many big checks, but lately it seems we’re seeing more about Netflix buying projects that have already been produced or even in some cases distributed elsewhere, such as on YouTube. Are you trying to spend less on stand-up by doing this, or simply trying to maximize that spend?
So I don’t think it’s that different. We’ve always bought shows that have been produced and put on Netflix. I mean, for example, Chappelle’s first specials with us were produced before we purchased them. We’re just looking for the best specials out there for our members. And people have such different tastes that sometimes, quite frankly, it’s really a great opportunity when you see something that’s pre-produced because you get a sense of exactly where the creative lens is. But I don’t think the strategy has changed. It’s still just about trying to find the best things out there, whether we do a deal in advance or whether it’s licensed.
Unlike some of your rivals, Netflix has avoided syndicating the TV shows and movies you own to other services or even FAST channels. But what about your stand-up specials? Wouldn’t it be a good way to monetize them while not diluting your brand?
That’s really not our focus. Our focus is having Netflix being the place where you come when you want to watch stand-up comedy.
The other advantage of Netflix being so much bigger than when you started building your stand-up business is that you have this huge ecosystem, where comics who have a successful special can go on to be in shows or movies, or pop up at other Netflix events. Bert Kreischer sometimes feels like he’s everywhere on the service. Does having this sort of “Wonderful World of Netflix” help in your bid to attract talent?
It’s probably the thing that I’m most excited about. I mean, Netflix is obviously a really big company and yet all the different buyers, across film and nonfiction and series — we talk a lot about this talent. You mentioned Bert Kreischer. Bert Kreischer was just all over the NFL Christmas game. We obviously talked about Mulaney. We have a sketch show coming out with Tom Segura, and season two of Michelle Buteau’s Survival of the Thickest. And by the way, this has been the way we’ve thought about things since we started in the space with people like Aziz Ansari and Ali Wong. It’s a really, really great thing to sit around a table with executives from every part of the company and have everyone be so eager to put these comedians that often begin with stand-up in their shows or movies. It’s something that we’re going to see more and more of.
Speaking of your competition, I’m curious what you make of the overall market right now. We’ve seen Amazon dabble with stand-up and then sort of retreat. HBO has a long legacy of specials. And this year, Hulu is trying to spotlight one comic every month. They even did a deal with Bill Burr, who’s been a regular on Netflix. How much of a threat to your dominance are these other players?
I think the eyeballs that come to Netflix to watch stand-up and the deep bench of library titles that we have and our festivals and radio stations and all of that make it pretty clear we’re very invested in the space and are very proud to have had this leading role in the comedy business. But the truth is that it’s very good for the stand-up business that there are other buyers in the space. I mean, first and foremost, we’re huge stand-up fans. So all of these great comedians having homes is great. Oftentimes different comedians go to different places like Nate Bargatze. He went to Amazon and then came back to Netflix. We think that the fact that competition is out there is a great thing and just shows how big of a business stand-up has become.
Was there a bidding war for Burr’s latest special? And was it something Netflix was interested in and went after?
I mean, Bill is one of the best stand-up comedians of all time and we’ve had a lot of business with him. So yeah, I mean, there was definite interest in that. And we look forward to working with him again down the line.
One person you’ve said you have no plans to work with again is Louis C.K. But last fall you bought a special he directed from Adrienne Iapalucci. I know that’s not the same as doing a deal directly with him, or even commissioning a project with him attached. But has something changed on that front? Or are you still not looking to bring him to Netflix, given the things he’s admitted to doing?
Adrienne Iapalucci is such a hilarious comic that our team has been tracking for a really long time. So we were thrilled to put out that special. But there are no plans to work with Louis at this point, yeah.
Before we go, I have to ask: Are you already planning the Netflix Is a Joke festival for 2026?
I have nothing to talk about right now, but we love a big comedy festival at Netflix — so more news to come.
So much for my plan of tricking you into confirming that there is definitely going to be a 2026 fest.
I understood the nature of your backdoor question, and I appreciated it. [Laughs.]
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