YouTube stars give Netflix a kid-friendly ratings lift
Netflix’s latest viewing report shows strong results for Ms. Rachel, Mark Rober and other creators, while video podcasts remain a smaller bet.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Ms. Rachel is doing big business on Netflix, even after building her audience on YouTube first.
Netflix’s latest What We Watched report, covering viewing across the first half of 2026, shows several creator-led shows pulling in strong audiences for the streamer. The data points to a clear win for Netflix’s push to bring major names from YouTube and other open platforms onto its service.
The first season of Ms. Rachel ranked as Netflix’s No. 9 title for the period with 37.3 million views, according to the report. The show’s second season landed at No. 15 with 31.3 million views.
The series comes from educator Rachel Accurso and uses songs, movement and play to help young children with speech, expression and emotions. Deadline reported that some parents have compared Accurso’s role in their homes to Mister Rogers.
Other family-friendly creator shows also showed up high in Netflix’s numbers. Salish & Jordan Matter, built around the father-daughter duo known from YouTube, reached the top 30 with 25.8 million views after its April debut, according to Netflix’s report. Its second season, which premiered a little over two weeks before the report, had already drawn 3.6 million views.
Danny Go!, a children’s series starring entertainer Daniel Coleman, recorded 26.4 million views. Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs also made the top 75, with season two reaching 14.4 million views. The third season logged 9.6 million views, while season one added 8.4 million views during the same six-month window.
Netflix said in its second-quarter earnings report that it has a track record of working with global storytellers and is increasingly doing business with top creators from open content platforms. The company named Danny Go!, Ms. Rachel, Mark Rober and Salish & Jordan Matter as examples of creator partnerships that have performed well.
The company also said Ms. Rachel has spent 27 weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10 since arriving on the platform last year. Salish & Jordan Matter and Danny Go! have spent eight and seven weeks there, respectively, since April.
Netflix has continued adding creator deals. Deadline reported that the streamer signed recent agreements with celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni, Alan Chikin Chow, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal’s Good Mythical Morning, and The Stokes Twins.
The strategy follows public comments last year from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who described YouTube at a Paley Media Council event as a place where creators can “cut their teeth on” and called it “a little bit of a farm league.” Sarandos said at the event that many creators make interesting programming, but do so at their own risk because YouTube does not give them upfront funding.
Netflix’s creator play has been less clear-cut in video podcasts. The company did not release individual viewing totals for titles including The Pete Davidson Show, The Bill Simmons Podcast and Therapuss with Jake Shane.
Instead, Netflix placed video podcasts under “Other Shows,” a category the report says captures total viewing from titles under 50,000 views and helps reflect all viewing on the service.
Netflix told Deadline that video podcasts remain “an emerging content bet” after launches earlier this year, while saying it has seen encouraging engagement signs, including daytime viewing and mobile use.
More podcast-style titles are on the way, according to Deadline, including Ellison Barber’s Allegedly, Jay Shetty’s On Purpose, and projects from Lele Pons, Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson, and Martha Stewart.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.