After a slow 2023, Netflix’s stand-up Comedy commissions have started showing signs of recovery in the first part of 2024, as Netflix wrapped up May’s Netflix is A Joke festival for the third consecutive year. A previous peak in stand-up specials in 2022, in line with Netflix’s first festival, came as pandemic restrictions eased, encouraging live shows and their subsequent recordings. However, while Netflix is commissioning more of the genre, since 2022 Q3 its commissioned stand-up has been increasingly male and American.

Netflix has shown a high interest in stand-up comedy, being responsible for 28% of all global stand-up commissions between 2021 Q1 and April 2024, with 163 titles announced, with Amazon a distant second place at 8%, or 46 specials commissioned. In linear TV, meanwhile, stand-up commissions have been in decline,  particularly from formerly prolific US cable channels such as HBO and Comedy Central, which pulled back significantly in 2023.

Netflix commissioned stand-up in 19 different markets in 2021, but has reduced the geographic diversity of its commissions since then. Indeed, the proportion of Netflix’s stand-up originating from America has risen from 53% in the first four months of 2022 to 89% in the first four months of 2024, while the proportion of commissions that were English-language rose from 67% to 92%. Moreover, this trend is opposed to Netflix’s Comedy commissions outside of stand-up, where the proportion originating in the US has fallen from 43% in January-April 22 to 39% in the same period this year, while the proportion in English fell from 45% to 39%.

While Amazon’s lack of early 2022 stand-up commissions makes a direct comparison unfair, the trend is similar, and again stands in contrast to the streamer’s overall Comedy policy, with Amazon in particular focusing on localising its Unscripted comedy formats, most notably LOL: Last One Laughing, which it has ordered in 19 markets since the start of 2021, compared to stand-up orders in 11. While overall Comedy commissions are being localised at both companies, it seems that stand-up is an outlier, due in part to the prevalence and apparent popularity of American comedians, as well as many of Netflix’s stand-up specials coming directly from its LA annual festivals.

However, while commissions have risen and fallen, the gender disparity found in stand-up specials has remained stubborn: Just 24% of all stand-up specials starred women. While the number of male-hosted stand-up specials on Netflix rose sharply in 2022, its female-hosted stand-up specials have remained at a low level. Comparatively, Amazon commissioned proportionally more stand-up hosted by women, but overall, just 27% of Amazon stand-up commissions star female talent.