Midge Maisel won't be Amazon Prime Video's only stand-up comedian for much longer.
Amazon has just ordered its very first original stand-up comedy special: Jim Gaffigan's Quality Time, Deadline reported Thursday. The comedian's latest will begin streaming later in 2019, though a specific date has not yet been announced.
In recent years, Netflix has been the platform to beat when it comes to streaming stand-up comedy, as they've dropped millions of dollars for original performances from some of the biggest comedians in the world, like Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Ellen DeGeneres, John Mulaney, Chris Rock, Patton Oswalt, Norm Macdonald, Bill Burr, Dana Carvey, Aziz Ansari, and more.
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Now, though, Amazon is looking to give Netflix some competition, sniping a comedy special that might have otherwise gone to its competitor. Gaffigan's 2018 special Cinco, after all, was a Netflix original, and previous performances of his are available to stream there. He chose to release his most recent special, Noble Ape, on demand via services like Amazon Prime and iTunes rather than selling it to a streaming platform, telling Business Insider that he liked the idea that to watch it, "you didn't just have to have Netflix."
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