Tom Brady’s Roast Nags Millions Of Live Viewers To Become Netflix’s Sixth Most-Watched Show

Topline

A much-buzzed-about roast of quarterback Tom Brady that poked fun at the athlete’s divorce, his looks and his all-American persona drew 2 million viewers to Netflix on its debut night Sunday, new data shows, breaking into the Top 10 most- watched shows of the week in a single day as one of three live events hosted by the streamer last week.

“The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady” streamed live on Netflix Sunday, May 5.

Netflix

Key Facts

“The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady” streamed live on Netflix for three hours on Sunday night and drew 2 million viewers for a total of 6.2 hours watched that day, Netflix data shows, though numbers on how many people have streamed it on -demand since aren’t yet available.

The roast was the sixth most-watched Netflix show the week of April 29 to May 5 despite having been available for less than half a day by week’s end.

The roast was one of three live programs broadcast by Netflix last week in a new attempt to drive engagement and grow revenue, including a stand-up special from Katt Williams that aired for the first time Saturday and had been viewed 4 million times by the end or Sunday to become the week’s fourth most-watched show.

The week also included the debut of a new live show with comedian John Mulaney called “Everybody’s in LA”; the talk-show style special aired its first episode at 10 pm ET on May 6 and will drop new episodes daily through May 10 (it hasn’t broken into the Netflix Top 10 list).

At the top of the Netflix chart last week was thriller “Baby Reindeer” with 18.6 million views, on the Top-10 list for the fourth week in a row, followed by the debut of “A Man in Full” in the No. 2 spot (6.3 million views), “Dead Boy Detectives” (4.7 million) and the third season of “Selling The OC” in the No. 5 spots with 2.2 million views.

The bottom of the chart was almost entirely filled with series that have dominated the streamer over the last month or more: “The Gentlemen” nabbed its ninth week on the list with 1.8 million views, followed by “CoComelon Lane” (1.6 million), the seventh top-charting week for “3 Body Problem” (1.5 million views) and “Unlocked: A Jail Experiment,” which was viewed 1.2 million times in its fourth week among the top 10 shows.

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“The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady” streamed live on Netflix Sunday, May 5.

Netflix

Key Background

The roast of Tom Brady was the first from Netflix and was done in a similar style to the ultra-popular roasts that were broadcast on Comedy Central until about five years ago. The format was the same and even some of the veteran Comedy Central presenters—like Nikki Glaser and Kevin Hart—were on deck with the best jokes of the night. Surprise guests included Kim Kardashian, Ben Affleck, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft. Roasters left very few topics off the table—with the exception of Brady’s kids, Glaser later explained.

Crucial Quote

Stars made fun of the seven-time Super Bowl winner for all kinds of things, including his recent divorce from longtime partner and supermodel Gisele Bündchen (“Tom Brady – five-time Super Bowl MVP, most career wins, most career touchdowns, you have seven rings. Well, eight, now that Gisele gave her back,” Glaser joked). Actor Will Ferrell appeared at the roast in-character as Ron Burgundy from the “Anchorman” series and joked “Poor Gisele, it took her 13 years to learn what we all know: Tom is boring. Dink, donk, dink, donk, touchdown , who cares!” Comedians made fun of Tom Brady’s connection to the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX (“Tom, how did you fall for that?” Glaser asked, “I mean, even Gronk was like, ‘Me know that not real money.”), decision to return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after going back on his retirement announcement (“Let me tell you something: When you’ve got a chance to go 8-9, and all it will cost you is your wife and kids? You’ ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” Hart joked) and his facial features (“Who’s laughing now, Tom? Not you, because your face can’t move and you don’t have a sense of humor,” former teammate Julian Edelman said).

Surprising fact

Kardashian made fun of her own family in the roast, to much laughter from the crowd. The reality TV star said it was hard for her to watch Brady be roasted, but that she wouldn’t be stepping in to stop it because “I think enough of my family members have helped defend former football players.” Her father, Robert Kardashian, was on the legal team for OJ Simpson.

What To Watch For

Who will be roasted next. Netflix hasn’t said anything about if it plans to produce more roasts, but the success of its first suggests more could be on the way. Bookmakers are setting betting lines on who could be the next victim, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Tiger Woods and Travis Kelce.

Big Number

6.4 million. That’s how many people watched Comedy Central’s most-watched roast of Charlie Sheen in 2011.

Chief Critic

People reported that the roast had one sure hater: Bündchen. The magazine reported (citing an unnamed source) that Bündchen was “disappointed” by the jokes made about her marriage and thought her family was depicted disrespectfully. In addition to jokes about their divorce, the roast included jabs at Bündchen’s new boyfriend, Joaquim Valente, from Hart.