Netflix partners with YouTuber for kids competition show

Netflix has tied up with YouTuber Mark Rober on a new children’s competition series.

The as-yet untitled show is being produced by Rober’s CrunchLabs and Jimmy Kimmel’s banner Kimmelot, and will see a variety of outlandish experiments being carried out.

Rober and CrunchLabs chief content officer, Scott Lewers, will executive produce alongside Kimmel and Kimmelot’s president, Scott Lonker.

“I love turning learning into a game, basically hiding the vegetables in the dessert, and now it’s a full-on competition gameshow. When you’re having fun, you’re learning without even realising it,” said Rober.

Kimmel added: “My kids love Mark Rober, and so do their parents. 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.”

Netflix has also picked up a selection of Rober’s YouTube episodes to debut later this year, ahead of the competition show’s launch in 2026.

Rober is a former NASA engineer who carries out educational experiments such as testing what happens when objects get dropped into lava or acid, and filling a swimming pool with jelly. His YouTube channel has 70 million subscribers.

Netflix said earlier this year that it wanted to tap into YouTube’s talent “breeding ground” to cultivate the next generation of creatives for its own ecosystem.

The streamer’s exec Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters added that talent could “graduate to” Netflix from social media services, with Sarandos admitting that tabs are being kept on the popularity of social media platforms to explore how the streamer can exploit trends.

Netflix has already remade YouTube series Pop The Balloon and rolled out its own version of The Sidemen’s Inside, as well as taking shows from YouTuber Miss Rachel.