Netflix Boss Ted Sarandos Says ‘Baby Reindeer’ True Story Debate Is “Uniquely British”: “This Is Not Happening Anywhere Else In The World”

Max Goldbart
·2 min read

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has described the Baby Reindeer debate as “uniquely British.”

The saga, which has seen Netflix sued for $170M by the ‘real-life Martha’ over her depiction in the Emmy-winning show, has seen a lawsuit filed in the U.S.

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But Sarandos posited that the debate around the show over its labeling as a “true story” is “not happening anywhere else in the world.”

Pushed on the “true story” element of the show, which has landed it in such hot water, Sarandos told RTS London that Baby Reindeer “is not a documentary, there are elements that are dramatized.”

“We are watching it performed by actors on TV, we think that’s abundantly clear that there is dramatization involved,” he added.

He was speaking as Netflix unveiled a first-look deal with creator Richard Gadd, who scooped an Emmy over the weekend for the smash hit, which has nonetheless been hugely controversial. The show tells of Gadd’s experience being stalked and sexually abused.

Reiterating previous comments, Sarandos called Baby Reindeer “Richard Gadd’s true story,” adding: “We are facilitating storytellers to tell their stories.”

The defamation suit may be looming and there are still lingering questions over what should or shouldn’t constitute a “true story,” but a jubilant Gadd preferred to focus on the good that his semi-autobiographical show brought to the world when accepting his Emmy over the weekend.

Windows not important

Ted Sarandos at RTS London. Image: RTS/Tim Whitby
Ted Sarandos at RTS London. Image: RTS/Tim Whitby

During a wide-ranging RTS keynote, Sarandos dismissed windowing as something that “audiences do not care about at all” in the current landscape.

As he tried to position Netflix as being audience-first above all else, the head of the streamer said that “the TV business was built on windowing” but “you do not hear [audiences] talk about it at dinner.”

Speaking to a the great-and-good of the UK TV industry, including numerous producers and broadcasting execs, Sarandos dismissed the likes of rights and distribution as “important, but what matters is how we serve the audience.”

“We have to put audiences first,” he added. “Think about it not as critics, not as media execs but from the perspective of a fan.”

Sarandos acknowledged “there is lots of anxiety and concern” in the sector at present, in areas such as “falling investment and AI,” but said he is “optimistic about the future” as he mulled that the entertainment business is going through another enormous, structural change, akin to when Netflix first entered the scene.

Sarandos was addressing RTS London, with the likes of David Beckham, Steven Knight and Tim Davie speaking later.

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