The Briefing: Netflix’s Tom Brady Roast Is a Hit

Ted Sarandos should be pleased. Sunday night’s roast of retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, aired live on Netflix, was a cultural hit, judging from the flood of praise on X (see here, here and here) and news media coverage like this. If nothing else, this symbolizes what old-TV giants have lost to Netflix. People of a certain age may remember that comedy roasts used to be the domain of Paramount Global’s cable channel, Comedy Central—in fact, Comedy Central's website prominently displays old roasts people can still watch. But Paramount Global, which also owns CBS, has faded from glory and is now being auctioned off. Apollo and Sony have reportedly bid $26 billion for the company, which is about 10% of Netflix’s market capitalization. 

More important, though, is what the show says about Netflix’s ability to continue growing. The roast adds to an increasing amount of sports-related programming on the streaming service. And it is the latest sign that Netflix has figured out how to do live programming without the glitches that afflicted it as recently as a year ago. Netflix has ramped up the amount of live programming lately, including a series of shows with comedian John Mulaney that began airing Friday and continues over the next few days. Live is good for advertising—marketers pitching near-term events, like movies, like it a lot—which is a business Netflix is hoping to build.