Netflix‘s latest creator deal could very well send a shiver of dread down YouTube‘s spine. Sam Goldbach and Colby Brock, the paranormal investigators known collectively as Sam and Colby, are bringing Hell Week — their spooky season tradition — to Netflix in 2026.
Sam and Colby, who first broke out on Vine, are now regarded as YouTube’s premier explorers of abandoned buildings, ghost towns, and other spooky locales. The culmination of their investigations comes during Hell Week, which typically arrives a few days before Halloween. During that time, Sam and Colby drop multiple feature-length documentaries, many of which wind up tallying tens of millions of YouTube views.
The success of Hell Week has led to a slow-but-steady expansion of the project. Snazzy original content was part of the equation by 2019, and in 2022, Sam and Colby released seven documentaries in 14 days. A year later, Cinemark showed up as a theatrical partner for Hell Week. A successful series of movie screenings in 2023 led to an extended run in 2024. That year, approximately 350 theaters welcomed Sam and Colby fans during a spooktacular October.
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Even outside of the Halloween season, Sam and Colby regularly produce some of the biggest sponsored videos on YouTube, so Netflix’s interest in the duo isn’t much of a shock. CEO Ted Sarandos‘ team has been striking deals with top creators and establishing itself as a legitimate alternative to YouTube. Sam and Colby’s Netflix presence will include “a collection of their spooky episodes” that will drop (when else?) at the start of October.
Netflix typically hasn’t sought exclusivity with its creator deals, and that’s the case here as well. In an Instagram post announcing the deal, Sam and Colby reassured their fans that “nothing else is changing” with regard to their distribution strategy. “You can still watch wherever you have been but NOW we get to post to Netflix too,” reads the post.
Even if YouTube gets to keep its Sam and Colby content, Netflix’s deal with the duo shows that the bidding war for creator content is not slowing down anytime soon. YouTube has tried to dissuade creators from partnering with Netflix by offering them seven-digit compensation packages. Since that strategy was revealed, however, Netflix has added YouTube favorites like The Besties and ChuChu TV to its lineup.
Sam and Colby are the latest creators who will share their videos across YouTube and Netflix. Can the latter platform actually soak up a significant chunk of Hell Week traffic? We’ll get a better sense of how the streamer’s spooky season strategy has fared once Netflix shares its viewership data for the second half of 2026.
