In the battle of streaming giants, Netflix has consistently been the king, but Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, which launched in 2019, is hot on its tail. Disney+ is less than two years old but already has over 100 million subscribers. In turn, Netflix has over 200 million but has been around for almost 25 years. Both services are constantly working to bring new content to their subscribers.
However, The Walt Disney Company still has one thing that Netflix does not — physical television channels. With its ownership of the Disney Channel, FX, FreeForm, Hulu and more, Disney has a lot of channels that they can create various forms of content for. While Disney is known for some pretty successful comedies — like Black-ish, Modern Family, and Fresh Off the Boat — its biggest success seems to come from its children’s programming and long-running dramas.
In its battle for comedy supremacy, Netflix has just added another powerhouse to its Comedy production team, and it is a to-be former Disney Executive. Amanda Barclay, the ABC Signature Executive Director, Comedy Development will be leaving The Walt Disney Company to join the team at Netflix as the Director of Netflix Comedy Original Series.
Barclay joined ABC Signature Executive Director, Comedy Development in 2020. She set up development at Hulu, FX, Freeform, and ABC and covered ABC pilots Adopted, Black Don’t Crack as well as Home Economics which went to series and has been renewed for a second season.
Prior to ABCS, Barclay was a current/development exec at YouTube Premium. She shepherded such series such as Wayne, Champaign ILL, and Dallas and Robo in addition to covering Seasons 2 and 3 of Cobra Kai.
When she heads over to Netflix, Amanda Barclay will be taking the place of Robert Prinz, who will be leaving the company. There has been no official announcement as to who will be taking over for Barclay as Disney’s new Executive Director of Comedy Development. Amanda Barclay is the second Executive at Disney to leave for Netflix in just a week. ABC Signature Executive of Drama Development, Lisa Lang McMullen also left ABC for Netflix to become a Director on Netlix’s Drama Development team.
Are you sad to see Disney losing Executives to Netflix? Let us know in the comments!