"Two hours before one of the most important live events in Netflix's history, LA's sprawling CBS Radford Studio Center is abuzz with the strangest combination of things. As I walk through one cavernous soundstage on a Tuesday afternoon, I hear multiple people warming up their voices to sing. I pass a man carefully waving a hair dryer in front of a piano. Outside, a man and a woman, both in scant black leather, walk past with a wave. I'm told they're aerialists. Somewhere in this enormous rehearsal space, there's also a 74-year-old budding standup comedian, an 11-year-old gospel singer, and a dancing border collie."
"Such is the wondrous, bizarre versatility of Star Search, which on this January evening will start a five-week run of live shows streamed to Netflix's 300 million-plus subscribers. It's a reboot of one of TV's most successful talent shows, though your average Stranger Things fan has likely never heard of it. It also represents one of Netflix's biggest programming bets ever."
Netflix is staging a live, five-week reboot of Star Search, hosting varied performers — aerialists, a 74-year-old standup, an 11-year-old gospel singer, and a dancing border collie — at CBS Radford Studio Center. The company leverages years of global streaming infrastructure and tests of formats and interactive features to adapt a competition show for social-media-driven audiences. Netflix has previously produced major live events, boxing matches, live comedy specials, wrestling, and NFL programming, but has not relied on nightly, appointment viewing to build a long-running talent franchise. When talent shows succeed, they become cultural events and star-making machines, a model Netflix aims to replicate by getting viewers to tune in repeatedly.
Read at The Verge
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