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Web series that went mainstream
Before streaming services had commissioning budgets, the internet was already a proving ground. These shows began as homemade or low-budget web series on YouTube, Vimeo and comedy websites — and were then picked up by television.
What counts?
A series qualifies when the TV version grew directly out of a web series or web pilot by the same creators. Each origin story below is sourced on the show’s own page.
10 shows, in the order the web versions appeared.
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Drunk History
Funny or Die 2007 → Comedy Central 2013
Derek Waters's first Drunk History video premiered on Funny or Die on 6 August 2007, with Michael Cera among the cast. The shorts continued online and briefly aired on HBO before Comedy Central launched the TV series on 9 July 2013.
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Childrens Hospital
Other websites 2008 → Adult Swim 2010
Rob Corddry's parody began as ten roughly five-minute webisodes on TheWB.com, all released on 8 December 2008. Adult Swim picked it up over a competing Comedy Central offer, first airing the original webisodes from 11 July 2010 and then newly made episodes from August 2010.
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People Just Do Nothing
YouTube 2010 → BBC Three 2014
The cast began posting improvised clips on YouTube in 2010 under the name Wasteman TV. Producers at Roughcut TV spotted them and made a BBC Three pilot, released in August 2012, which became the most shared video on iPlayer that month; the BBC ordered a series that launched on iPlayer in July 2014.
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Broad City
YouTube 2010 → Comedy Central 2014
Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson launched Broad City as a YouTube web series in February 2010; it ran for two seasons, with Amy Poehler appearing in the finale. Poehler went on to mentor the pair and executive-produce the TV version, which Comedy Central committed to in 2012 after FX bought the pilot script and then passed.
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Insecure
YouTube 2011 → HBO 2016
Insecure is not a straight transfer of the web series: it is described as partially based on Issa Rae's YouTube hit The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl, which premiered in February 2011. Rae began developing a new pilot with co-creator Larry Wilmore in 2013, and HBO picked it up in October 2015; the first episode streamed on HBO Now and HBO Go on 23 September 2016 before weekly HBO broadcasts began on 9 October.
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Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Crackle 2012 → Netflix 2018
Jerry Seinfeld's talk show premiered on the digital network Crackle on 19 July 2012 and ran there for nine seasons. In January 2017 it was announced that it would move to Netflix from its tenth season, which debuted in 2018; Netflix also added the first nine seasons that January.
Future unclear Full guide and where to watch Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
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High Maintenance
Vimeo 2012 → HBO 2016
Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld released High Maintenance as a Vimeo web series from November 2012, making each early episode for under $1,000. Vimeo then funded six episodes as original programming before HBO picked the show up, and the half-hour HBO version premiered in September 2016.
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Letterkenny
YouTube 2013 → Crave 2016
Jared Keeso first made Letterkenny Problems, a short-form web series released on YouTube in 2013 in which he and Nathan Dales trade comic one-liners. Crave commissioned a full series in March 2015 — the first original series it commissioned — and Letterkenny premiered there on 7 February 2016.
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Dreaming Whilst Black
YouTube 2018 → BBC Three 2023
Dreaming Whilst Black began as a web series in 2018, made by Adjani Salmon and fellow Met Film School alumni. A BBC Three pilot followed in 2021 and won a BAFTA Craft award, and the full series, co-produced by A24 and Big Deal Films, premiered on BBC Three on 24 July 2023.
Future unclear Full guide and where to watch Dreaming Whilst Black
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Hazbin Hotel
YouTube 2019 → A24 (series released on Prime Video) 2024
Vivienne Medrano's independently made pilot, funded by her Patreon backers, was released on her YouTube channel on 28 October 2019 and had 54 million views by early 2021. A24 picked the show up in August 2020, and the series premiered on Prime Video on 19 January 2024, with its first episode also on YouTube for a limited time the day before.