Netflix has made its programming strategy clear: It wants more shows, films, and live events led by star creators from YouTube and TikTok. To that end, the streamer has announced an agreement with Mark Rober that will bring a new competition show to subscribers starting in 2026.
Rober ranks among YouTube’s biggest stars, with more than 70 million subscribers and over 13.7 billion lifetime views on his primary channel. His prestige caught Netflix’s eye earlier this year; a month before the deal was announced, Deadline reported that Netflix was negotiating with Rober amidst a flurry of creator outreach.
The completed deal also involves one of Rober’s celebrity friends: Jimmy Kimmel. The late-night host let Rober guest host his show in 2022, and he teamed with YouTube’s favorite engineer on a pair of TV shows that hit Discovery in 2023.
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For their next team-up, Rober and Kimmel are bringing a “Kids and Family competition series” to Netflix, according to a Tudum post. Their respective companies — Rober’s CrunchLabs and Kimmel’s Kimmelot — will co-produce the series. Scott Lewers, who has supercharged CrunchLabs’ content output since joining the brand earlier this year, is listed as an executive producer on the upcoming project.
As for the viewers? Kimmel can provide at least a few of those. “My kids love Mark Rober, and so do their parents,” he said in a statement. “Mark’s videos are so clever and inventive, it’s easy to forget that they’re educational, too. We can’t wait to introduce one of the best and brightest creators to Netflix.”
As far as Netflix is concerned, Rober’s all-ages approach is a big part of his appeal. The streamer’s more grown-up creator partnerships, like the Paul-Tyson boxing match, have grabbed many recent headlines; however, the popular appeal of kid-friendly creator has started to inform Netflix’s programming decisions. That’s why its subscribers are getting videos from Ms. Rachel as well as Rober’s upcoming contributions to the slate.
Before he drops his competition series, Rober will bring “some of his most beloved experiments” to the Netflix library, according to a post on X. Those clips will hit the streamer later this year.
Nearly 15 years into his YouTube career, Rober is arguably more popular than he’s ever been. Through #TeamWater, his latest collab with MrBeast, he is raising $40 million to provide clean drinking water to communities around the world. The Netflix deal will ensure that Rober’s star continues to shine well into 2026 and beyond.
