'Tiger King 2' is coming to Netflix

Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal joins the Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss the return of 'Tiger King.'

Video transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. If you were like me back early in the pandemic, there wasn't a whole lot to do when we were locked down at home. But Netflix saw that as a big boost, as "Tiger King" made its premiere back in March of 2020, immediately watched by a large number of households. More than 60 million in just the first four weeks, I think, it was on the platform. And now it's back.

Just to show you how long we've been in the pandemic, "Tiger King 2" coming back to Netflix. And for more on what it means for the platform and what to expect, Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal now joins us in this week's Fame and Fortune. Ali.

Yeah, Zach. We're back, baby. "Tiger King" Part 2. It'll be coming to the platform, Netflix announced, later this year. And this is actually part of a greater effort on the part of Netflix to have more true crime series. And they announced four new docuseries in addition to some films. Zach, I think you'd like this one since you're a crypto enthusiast. It's going to be called, "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King". That's one of the docuseries that will be featured. And that follows a group of investors as they look into the mysterious death of crypto mastermind Jerry Cotton.

So it sounds like we're going to have a lot new content coming to the platform. Of course, people love these true crime stories. People love "Tiger King". I'm not totally surprised that we're seeing a part two. As you mentioned, this was something that became a cultural phenomenon at the start of the pandemic. There wasn't much to talk about besides COVID-19 and this sort of brought a moment of levity. It was that water watercooler moment that people really craved. I personally didn't fully watch it. I couldn't get too into it. It was a little too weird but I know people that were absolutely obsessed.

So on the part of Netflix, if something's not broken, why fix it? Netflix has its ability to host shows on the platform, to even steal shows that were canceled on other networks, and make them shows that people talk about. We're seeing that with "Manifest". That show was canceled on NBC and now Netflix brought it over for a fourth and final season on the platform.

Now, of course, there are some headwinds as we head into the fall. We have that entertainment strike looming. We have the Delta variant surge. Hopefully, that doesn't impact production because as we know, if that happens, it usually bleeds into those subscriber growth figures. We got that warning from Disney Plus earlier this week. But if we're monitoring that and if that is all good, hopefully we get all this new content coming out through the end of this year and 2022.

But Zack, you watched "Tiger King", right? You loved it.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I watched "Tiger King". I thought it was pretty good. I thought I thought it was good. It got me to stay with Netflix and reminded me that that's the home for a lot of content in the pandemic. And I think a lot of people remembered that. If you look at the Emmys, which I know you were tracking for us they, finally passed HBO in the total number of awards. So that's kind of cool, I guess, for them. But I mean, for the Emmys, I guess it all comes down to ads and whether or not that made money for them.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, and that's something we don't normally talk about. But we did get some interesting ad data from EDO. And advertisers probably were already happy when we got the news on Monday that ratings for the Emmys surprised to the upside, bucking that downward trend that we've been seeing. 7.4 million people tuned in to watch the show on CBS and that's a 16% increase from the roughly 6.1 million people who watched it on ABC last year. The show was also simultaneously broadcasted on Paramount Plus. So even more eyeballs than usual.

But let's stick to those broadcast figures because as I mentioned, there were some interesting trends when it came to that ad data. Now, number one thing to note is that there was a total of 35% more search engagement generated during the 2021 Emmy Awards in comparison to 2020. Now, this was as a result of one, more people watching the broadcast, in addition to a higher number of ad units. And when it came to those ad units this year it was all about pharma, retail, and autos. All three of those categories seeing a surge in estimated spend, compared to 2020, with pharma increasing up 12% versus last year. And I think this makes sense, considering where we are now with the pandemic.

Last year's Emmys, it was all virtual. It was September 2020. We had no idea really what lied ahead, especially in regards to retail. Last year only Old Navy had an ad, one ad, during the Emmys. This year we had ads from Gap, Macy's, Amazon. And all of those ads generated pretty high its search engagement. In fact, when it came to the number one most engaging ad, that went to luxury retailer Tiffany's, who had an ad with Jay-Z and Beyonce. Obviously, when you have Jay-Z and Beyonce involved in anything, that's probably going to explode and be very popular. But I thought this was interesting because in 2020 the most engaging ad was from LG Home Appliances. So a lot more boring, I guess, you could say. But this was a time when people were renovating their homes, adding home offices, and now we're in a much different place today.

So overall, if you're an ad buyer, I think it does make sense to buy an ad during an award show like this versus just regular prime time TV. For example, according to EDO, a TV viewer was 23% more likely to search for a brand after seeing it aired during the 2021 Emmys versus the regular broadcast primetime showing. So despite the fact that award shows often get a bad rap, despite the fact that there has been this downward trend in viewership, obviously, with the exception of this year, people are still tuning in. They're still engaging with those commercials. I know we usually only talk about Super Bowl commercials, but some of these more prominent Hollywood award shows are good to look at as well.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, seven million viewers, nothing to snuff out there. But I'll be watching when "Tiger King 2" comes back. I think a lot of those Emmy watchers might as well. Ali Canal bringing us the latest there. Appreciate that.