YouTube originals

YouTube launched in early 2005 as a place to share clips and, during the 2010s, became the leading outlet for self-produced web series. Several comedies later taken up by television started there. Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson began Broad City as a YouTube series in February 2010; Issa Rae's Awkward Black Girl launched on its own channel in February 2011 and became the basis for HBO's Insecure; and Vivienne Medrano's animated Hazbin Hotel pilot, posted in October 2019, grew into a Prime Video series.

British comedy has used the same route. People Just Do Nothing began in 2010 as 'Wasteman TV' videos on YouTube before the BBC commissioned a pilot, and Guz Khan's character videos as Mobeen led to Man Like Mobeen on BBC Three.

Paying for originals

YouTube's own commissions were tied to a subscription. YouTube Red, unveiled on 21 October 2015, combined ad-free viewing with exclusive YouTube Originals, and the first of them — a PewDiePie reality series and three films — went up on 10 February 2016, when Red was available only in the US. The flagship became Cobra Kai, a sequel series to The Karate Kid that premiered on 2 May 2018. Series such as Origin and Wayne followed, though each was cancelled after one season in 2019. In June 2018 the service was renamed YouTube Premium and launched in the UK, Canada and ten other European countries.

Winding down

The experiment did not last. Cobra Kai left for Netflix in 2020, where its first two seasons became the most-watched series on the platform, and in January 2022 YouTube shut its Originals programme.

Key dates

1. 21 October 2015

   YouTube Red unveiled

   YouTube unveils a subscription tier combining ad-free viewing with exclusive originals.

   Source: Wikipedia: YouTube Premium

2. 10 February 2016

   First YouTube Originals premiere

   Scare PewDiePie and three films become YouTube's first exclusive programmes, for US subscribers.

   Source: Variety

3. 2 May 2018

   Cobra Kai premieres

   The Karate Kid sequel series debuts on YouTube Red.

   Source: Wikipedia: Cobra Kai

4. 18 June 2018

   YouTube Premium arrives in the UK

   YouTube Red is renamed YouTube Premium and expands to the UK and other European countries.

   Source: Wikipedia: YouTube Premium

5. January 2022

   YouTube Originals wound down

   YouTube announces it is shutting down its Originals programme.

   Source: Wikipedia: List of YouTube Premium original programming