Here's why Aziz Ansari 'refused' to pitch his new Netflix show to traditional TV networks
Ansari is a big fan of working with the streaming service because, as he recently told Deadline, it's "creative and friendly."
When asked about working in the Netflix model - as opposed to network TV - Ansari explained to Deadline:
It's great. We didn't even pitch this to any traditional networks. I kind of refused to do it. I don't want to work in that environment. So many friends of mine have done that stuff and it just seems like a process that's not fun. And I think people are able to do it and some people make good shows. But I'm so used to working from a mode of stand-up where it's like, I write something. I work on it. Audiences think it's funny. I film it. And then I give it to Netflix, and they put it on. That's why I was excited to partner with Netflix because they seemed like they were creative and friendly.
Ansari says there are more perks to working with Netflix, too.
There are little things you don't even think about-there's no commercials. You don't have to get an episode to exactly 30 minutes. In editing it's so much help. When you're editing a Parks episode, it will be like, "Well, we have a commercial break here so we've got to find 40 seconds to cut." Weird, little tasks like that are just kind of gone. And so this feels like 10 little movies that have different lengths, there's a through line, there is a serialization, and there's a payoff.
Read Ansari's full interview with Deadline here.