YouTube's Biggest Failure Gave Netflix One Of Its Greatest Shows Ever

Published Jul 30, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel. One of the big swings and a miss from YouTube ended up being a massive hit on Netflix. Remember YouTube Red? It was a subscription service for YouTube introduced in 2015, offering ad-free streaming to all its videos as well as access to YouTube Originals, original programming to compete with the Hulu, Netflix, and HBO libraries. In 2018, the service was rebranded as YouTube Premium, and four years later, after years of dwindling originals, YouTube announced it was shutting down the YouTube Originals program. The short-lived stint resulted in a handful of notable shows that quickly had to find other homes. Cobra Kai might be the most successful original show to come out of the endeavor, and it almost risked being shut down. Seasons 1 and 2 premiered on YouTube Red, but then YouTube, likely in anticipation of canceling all originals, refused to renew the series for a fourth season, despite a third season already being shot. Enter Netflix, who offered to premiere season 3 and went on to renew Cobra Kai for a fourth, fifth, and final sixth season. It was the perfect match, and a great example of what Netflix can do to support TV shows when it wants to. Seasons 1 and 2 were excellent, but that the series never dipped in quality after such a major move says a lot about how the streamer gave ultimate control to the creative team. Had the series been canceled after season 3, only appearing on YouTube Red, it would probably be a "forgotten gem", a series that, while excellent, never managed to garner a wide audience. Thanks to Netflix helping Cobra Kai to the finish line, it's become a major success story for the franchise and the streaming service. Cobra Kai Got Better And Better Each Season Cobra Kai is a show that got better every season, and with most of the seasons debuting on Netflix, some credit has to go to the streamer. No season earned anything below a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and while none earned a 100% after season 1, Rotten Tomatoes is not the entire story. The series starts with an excellent conceit, bringing back the characters from an '80s classic and turning things on its head with how you might expect their lives to have turned out. That idea powers the show for two seasons, but when the series hit Netflix, it took on some deeper storylines. It no longer became a Karate Kid epilogue; Cobra Kai took on an identity all its own, exploring Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) as the individuals they became years after the events of The Karate Kid rather than simply as extensions of the characters from the films. ​​​​​​​ The Karate Kid Franchise Became More Prestigious With Cobra Kai If you look at The Karate Kid film franchise, it's less impressive than its place in pop culture suggests. The first The Karate Kid is a classic, Academy Award-nominated film. After that, things begin to dip. The five movies that came after are somewhere between fine and downright bad. The Karate Kid Franchise Rotten Tomatoes Scores Year Title RT Score 1984 The Karate Kid 81% 1986 The Karate Kid Part II 49% 1989 The Karate Kid Part III 18% 1994 The Next Karate Kid 20% 2010 The Karate Kid 67% 2021-2025 Cobra Kai 94% 2025 Karate Kid: Legends 57% It was one of those bad '80s franchises that people kept returning to more for nostalgia's sake than any real critical appreciation. Cobra Kai has changed the shape of the franchise. Thanks to its success, both with critics and audiences, The Karate Kid franchise is, on the whole, a more unassailable series than it was before Cobra Kai. Release Date 2018 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix, YouTube Premium Showrunner Jon Hurwitz Cast Ralph Macchio Daniel LaRusso Directors Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, Joel Novoa, Jennifer Celotta, Steven K. Tsuchida, Sherwin Shilati, Marielle Woods, Steve Pink, Lin Oeding, Michael Grossman Writers Josh Heald, Ashley Darnall, Chris Rafferty, Bill Posley Creator(s) Hayden Schlossberg, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz