Netflix claps back at critiques for calling the streamer a TV Tourist

Netflix won big at the 2025 Emmys with 30 wins to the streamer's name. However, it was the eight awards won by Adolescence, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, that really sealed the deal for the streamer.

The young actor Owen Cooper's name is back in headlines after becoming the youngest male winner at the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor. As a result, comments regarding Netflix being a "TV tourist" have also resurfaced.

However, this time around, the streamer clapped back at the critics who've referred to the global streamer as a tourist for their involvement in the commissioning of projects such as Adolescence.

Keep reading to find out what happened.

Netflix replies to "Tourist TV" comments made after Adolescence's success

After Netflix's Adolescence broke all streaming records for the network while sparking an extremely important conversation as well, one critique about the show, which was more so about the streamer, started making the headlines.

Louisa Compton, the Channel 4 news boss in the UK, at the Edinburgh TV Festival, described the channel as "proud parents" of the TV show. She cited the various opportunities from Channel 4 to creatives Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham over multiple years and projects, effectively nurturing them, before the global streamer commissioned Adolescence:

"We’ve developed and nurtured the talent that has allowed Netflix to come in as TV tourists and effectively commission [Adolescence]. Without us that wouldn’t have happened. We nurture where the streamers don’t."

This comment made headlines. However, executives for the streamer did not make any comment regarding the same until the Emmy wins for Adolescence made headlines. The vice president of production for the streamer's UK branch, Anna Mallett, during the Royal Television Society's Cambridge Convention, when questioned about the comments, responded:

"We are not a tourist. Adolescence is a great example of our strategy, which is to make local UK content for local UK audiences. And it’s fantastic that it’s resonated globally. "

She went on to cite how the streamer's presence in the UK has helped in the growth of several production companies, the cast, and the crew. She even continued to point out the rise of star Ncuti Gatwa, who was cast in the global streamer's Sex Education before he rose to fame on the BBC show Doctor Who as the titular Doctor, benefitting public service broadcasting:

"Netflix has been operating in the UK for 15 years. Over the last four years, we’ve invested £6BN, we’ve worked with 200 production companies, thousands and thousands of cast and crew. So we see ourselves very much as part of the ecosystem focused on audiences."

The streamer has been persistent in its defense as a part of the same ecosystem, which is only concerned about creating local content for the local market and not being compelled to make a global hit from the get-go.

Another executive for Netflix, Mona Qureshi, who previously worked for the BBC, also reiterated the comments by Mallet when she said:

"Adolescence simply came out of something which is us reading a script and responding to this fantastic creative team and just being utterly compelled by delivering from the get-go… No one’s thinking global, let’s make something globally. It’s just about being in tune with what the local market wants"

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