Picture Credit: Netflix
After eight seasons and 49 episodes on Netflix, Somebody Feed Phil is moving on. Season 9 will stream for free on the Phil Rosenthal World YouTube channel in early 2027, and United Airlines is the show’s new title sponsor per Variety and the official website, which has been decked out with United Airlines visuals.
The move was first announced in March, as part of a deal between Rosenthal’s company, Lucky Bastards, and Banijay. Today we found out how the show will pay for itself without Netflix: with a lot of sponsorship. United will be the only airline to show season 9 on its seatback screens, and it will reportedly appear in some scenes. It’s also sponsoring Rosenthal’s live tour and running a “Somebody FIND Phil” sweepstakes, where MileagePlus members guess the eight Season 9 cities to win flights. The grand prize includes a meal with Phil at his LA diner, Max & Helen’s. Banijay is also lining up tourism boards as sponsors. That’s a big change from the Netflix days, when there were no ads at all.
The official episode list is due in December. Reports have already said that season 9 started filming in Greece this autumn, so that’s one city you can probably guess.
Rosenthal owns the rights to Somebody Feed Phil, so he could take the show with him when he left, and he’s been open about why he did. He says “YouTube is the future” and likes that anyone can watch without a subscription. He has compared the move to Everybody Loves Raymond, which he liked because it was free to watch everywhere.
He has also been candid about why the show suited Netflix. Last year he joked that “Netflix loves us because we’re cheap and people love us because we’re sweet.” He has promised the show itself won’t change. Fans will find out next year whether that holds up with an airline in some scenes.
This is the second time the show has changed platforms. It began on PBS as I’ll Have What Phil’s Having, then moved to Netflix and was renamed Somebody Feed Phil when it premiered in January 2018. Netflix released new seasons fairly regularly after that. We covered season 7’s arrival in March 2024 and season 8 in June 2025, which featured Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, and Donny Osmond. Season 8 turned out to be the show’s last on Netflix.
Shows almost never move in this direction. Netflix has been bringing in YouTube talent like Ms. Rachel and Mark Rober, and YouTube Originals like Cobra Kai and, most recently, Wayne have ended up on Netflix. The closest the other way was Netflix itself posting free episodes of Our Planet and Explained to YouTube in 2020.
All eight seasons, including season 7 and season 8, are still streaming on Netflix, and we can confirm Netflix currently has indefinite rights to the series, so they won’t be going anywhere.
Will you follow Phil to YouTube? Let us know in the comments.
