Netflix has been taking some aggressive steps over the past year in order to cement its place in the entertainment industry. It first began by signing on some big remakes, then producing some big budget feature films to be screened on its own service. The streaming service is now focusing on another facet of entertainment – stand-up comedy, and boy is it going big with it!
Laughter fest 2017
Fans of stand-up comedy will be pleased to know that starting this week, Netflix will be releasing a new stand-up special every week for the rest of the year.
They have already launched some pretty memorable specials over the past two years, including ones featuring Bo Burnham and Anthony Jeselnik, but the network has now signed on some stand-up giants who will feature exclusively with them.
According to a recent report, Netflix has already brought on the likes of Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, Jerry Seinfeld, Patton Oswalt, Amy Schumer and Chris Rock. These are perhaps the biggest names in stand-up today, and it appears that Netflix has bagged them all.
No risk, no reward
All of this didn’t come cheap though, and the brand has had to shell out some big bucks. Reports suggest that a total of 100 million dollars were offered to Jerry Seinfeld in order to make “Comedians in cars getting coffee” and two stand-up specials.
They also had to spend another 40 million dollars for two Chris Rock specials. The rest of the comedians are being paid anywhere between 10 to 20 million dollars as well, and if you are keeping a track of the total tally, that’s roughly 200 million dollars being spent on 6 comedians.
Clearly these comedians are of the highest standards, and Netflix realizes that they need to spend “big-studio” money in order to rope in these big names.
Stand-up is also one of the most popular mediums in entertainment today, and investing in it seems like the right decision.
Whether this pans out for the network or not, fans of stand-up comedy can be excited for the line-up instore for them all-year long. With a new special being released each week, stand-up may become the new favorite medium of 2017.
