Netflix Orders John Mulaney Live Weekly Talk Show in 2025

Netflix is expanding its business with comedian John Mulaney. Following the success of last year’s live “Everybody’s in LA” series with Mulaney, chief content officer Bela Bajaria announced Thursday that Netflix will launch a live weekly talker with Mulaney next year. “I’m really excited about it,” she said, revealing the news at the Bloomberg Screentime event in Los Angeles. “So for next year, for 2025, we’re doing a variety live talk show with John Mulaney, which I’m super excited about,” she said. “I mean, John Mulaney, hello. So we have a long relationship with John, obviously, and we have done his stand up specials and during Netflix is a Joke Festival he did a live talk show called ‘Everybody’s in LA.’ and I was there at a couple of the tapings, and it was just so bold and original and fresh and then unpredictable. And I think it’ll be really fun to get to do a live show with him.”

Bajaria said viewership for “Everybody’s in LA” wasn’t huge, but it was seen as a good test and learning experiment for the next step. “Now, if we build a weekly live talk/variety, what does that look like? I think the live will be interesting to see. Also, he’s just wildly talented and really creative.”

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Talk has been a challenging space for Netflix, with past attempts from hosts like Hasan Minhaj failing to gain traction. But Bajaria said “I think we have to continue to be bold and take risks and swings. And I think it would be too easy and too safe to go, ‘oh, well, talk hasn’t worked, so let’s not try this thing.'”

Live has been a growth area for Netflix, which is in talks with BuzzFeed to air live versions of “Hot Ones,” the popular YouTube talk series hosted by Sean Evans, and has added live sporting events like golf, tennis and boxing; a hot dog eating contest; and comedy specials from the likes of Chris Rock and Joe Rogan. Netflix is also soon adding live wrestling programming, as well as a Christmas day set of NFL games.

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