Netflix's 'Champion' is All About the Music

British author Candice Carty-Williams became the first Black author to win the top prize at the British Book Awards with her hit novel Queenie in 2019. The novel has since been optioned by Channel 4 and will be the next co-production between the network and Hulu, slated to arrive on both sides of the pond later in 2024. But before the series based on her best-known work hits streaming, first there's Champion, the series greenlit by the BBC as part of its commitment to underrepresented voices that also spawned series like Everything I Know About Love, Rain Dogs, and I May Destroy You. Netflix picked up the series for co-production almost immediately at the time, suggesting it was the most likely hit of the group.

However, since then, Netflix's interest in the series seems to have cooled. The show did merely ok in the ratings on the BBC when it debuted in the summer of 2023, unhelped by Netflix, who did nothing to promote the series or bother motion it would be showing up in America on the streaming service. When the January 2024 lists originally dropped in December, Netflix left Champion off the listing; it was only quietly added later after most entertainment sites had posted their versions. Perhaps Netflix is simply relying on its algorithm to turn the show into a sleeper hit. It worked for Suits, after all. But then again, we saw how well it worked (or not) for Bodies.

The thing about Champion is that it has all the elements to be a hit. A soap opera drama about a Black family in the British music business, a la Empire, Carty-Williams has described the series as a love letter to British Black music. Speaking to Deadline, she said she believed the show would do well in America. “From what I’ve seen and understand, Americans have a real love for our music and culture, and it’s also Jamaican culture [in the show], so American-Jamaicans can enjoy it. There are so many crossovers with American and British artists, and I feel like they always show a lot of love to us.”