The reality show Outside, co-produced by British collective the Sidemen and Netflix, launched on the platform on 28 September, immediately becoming its number-one show in the UK and in four or five other countries, and reaching the top ten in 42 territories.

The show, in which 12 content creators are dropped into a remote forest and must compete for £1 million, builds on the legacy of this extremely popular group of seven YouTube creators. It can be considered a spin-off of Inside (featuring the same format but a different setting), a YouTube web reality show that was acquired by Netflix, which later commissioned a US version of the show, Inside: USA, which premiered in 2025.

(El artículo continúa más abajo - Inf. publicitaria)

This marked the beginning of the collaboration between the streamer and the seven YouTube creators, with Outside constituting their first co-production. To facilitate this, the collective established a production company called Sidemen Entertainment. At the MIPCOM Cannes panel “Creators Connect: Netflix x Sidemen. How Does It Really Work?”, Adam Cohen, head of the studio, talked about the challenges of finding a hybrid model that would combine their brand of creative anarchy with Netflix's usual production schedule, alongside Keziah Ogun, commissioner within Netflix’s Unscripted Series team.

They had to strike a balance in the speed at which they worked. “When Inside launched on YouTube, it was conceived in 30 days, realised in eight and edited in nine. We are no longer allowed to work at this speed,” said Cohen. It took three to four months to finalise Outside, which was very quick for Netflix in any case. “We had never done anything like this in an unscripted format. We needed flexibility because trying new things is part of our DNA,” Cohen explained, with Ogun replying: “At Netflix, we like to take risks. This was particularly crazy and exciting, but having creative collaboration helped.”

Many of the producers who now work for Sidemen Entertainment used to be content creators. They made a video every single week: “That training ground is where we pulled our team from. Netflix has been brilliant in allowing us to do what’s best for content creators, who are in continuous conversation with their audience, which gives them something unique,” added Cohen.

In fact, the group's main YouTube channel, Sidemen Sunday, has over 23 million subscribers and releases a different show every Sunday at 7 pm. It could be a road trip, a football game, a car chase or a dating show – the list goes on.

“The core ingredient is personality-led content made by a young group of lads who enjoy going out and having fun. It's something the audience can really rely on,” said head of Production Tanya Pile, who was the collective's first employee when they launched the channel and is now part of a team of over 60 full-time staff.

Unlike Sidemen Sunday, where every weekly show was a pilot, “for Outside, Netflix wanted a linear, episodic series with a bigger narrative. It was also very supportive during the editing phase. The show was edited like a scaled-up YouTube reality show,” explained Cohen, adding that they had to compromise on the duration.

“Outside was crucial for Netflix in pulling in an audience of young men, who don't usually watch our unscripted shows, which are more geared towards women,” Ogun revealed.

Outside is therefore an example of the new creator economy, which was one of the highlights of MIPCOM Cannes: a business model based on expertise and connections with fan communities that is eroding the traditional commissioning model. In this new scenario, YouTube is currently at the heart of the discussion as the dominant platform for the younger demographic, together with TikTok.

Leading FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) platforms are also looking to creators, setting up dedicated channels like Happy Place on Samsung TV Plus, featuring Fearne Cotton’s hit talk show that started life as an audio and then video podcast, and reached 120 million downloads over nine years. Samsung TV Plus turned it into one of the real gems of their 272 channels on offer in the UK. Storytelling and personal engagement are thus emerging as the new premium content.