In late August 2020, 20 episodes of a Karate Kid lega-sequel series called Cobra Kai appeared on Netflix. The show was an instant smash, rocketing to the top of Netflix’s trending charts. Four months later, another batch of 10 episodes debuted, and fans from Gen X to Gen Z raved about what a great job Netflix had done in bringing the beloved franchise back to life.
There was just one problem: Netflix didn’t develop Cobra Kai. Those first two seasons had been made for and originally released by what was at various points called YouTube Red and YouTube Premium. It was YouTube’s attempt to get into the original scripted streaming business, which every entertainment and tech company was racing to join in an attempt to dethrone, well, Netflix. But to quote Omar Little from The Wire, you come at the king, you best not miss. YouTube Red/Premium lived so far beneath the pop cultural radar that everyone understandably assumed that Cobra Kai, which eventually produced four more seasons directly for Netflix, had been on the streaming giant all along.
This was far from the first, or last, time a show that languished elsewhere exploded in popularity the moment it landed at the top of the Netflix app. Breaking Bad famously struggled to find an audience in its early seasons, then drew huge numbers for its final season on AMC, thanks to all the viewers who had binged the earlier ones on Netflix. (Editor’s note: The Ringer recently partnered with Netflix to host certain podcasts on the platform.) Nobody noticed the first season of You on Lifetime; it became a phenomenon on Netflix and, like Cobra Kai, went on to produce many seasons just for the streamer. Schitt’s Creek (which was a coproduction between the CBC in Canada and Pop TV in the States), Loudermilk (which had a…