COVID-19 has impacted just about every aspect of our lives, including entertainment. We've seen movies and TV shows experience delays or sometimes shut down entirely over the past year, and Netflix was no exception. The streaming giant had numerous shows in production when COVID-19 hit, and the delays have meant that some shows would be premiering later than expected, but they are on the way.
During the recent investor video for their first-quarter financial results, Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos revealed that new seasons of The Witcher, Cobra Kai, and You will all launch in the fourth quarter of 2021.
What happened in the first part of this year was that a lot of the projects that we’d hoped to come out earlier did get pushed because of the post-production delays and Covid delays and we think we’ll get back to a much steadier state in the back half of the year, certainly in Q4 where we have the returning seasons of some of our most popular shows like The Witcher and You and Cobra Kai as well as some big tentpole movies that came to market a little slower than we’d hoped like Red Notice and Escape From Spiderhead.
During that same investor's video, Netflix revealed that they missed they own prediction for global subscribers as they reported 208 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter, narrowly falling short of their 210 million prediction. Turns out, it was COVID all along. "We believe paid membership growth slowed due to the big Covid-19 pull forward in 2020 and a lighter content slate in the first half of this year, due to Covid-19 production delays," the company said. "We continue to anticipate a strong second half with the return of new seasons of some of our biggest hits and an exciting film lineup." Anticipation is high for several of Netflix's returning programs, including the second season of The Witcher, as well as the fourth season of Cobra Kai, which was the first produced specifically for Netflix. The first season of The Witcher debuted in December 2019, while the third season of Cobra Kai launched earlier this year.