Baywatch reboot sets its streaming home and premiere date

Here we go again: Baywatch is strapping on the red trunks for another run, and this time you won't have to dig through dodgy streaming sites if you're outside America. Somehow, more than a quarter-century since the Hoff first jogged across the sand in slow motion, the franchise has splashed back onto the international market—with a rather sprawling distribution jig, naturally.

Amazon's Prime Video is getting all nine seasons of Baywatch, plus Baywatch Hawaii, for Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Benelux, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Canada, Latin America, and India.

Bursting out of Syndication

If you missed it: Baywatch spent ages as the world's most-watched telly—over a billion viewers a week at its peak (honestly, try and name another show that could say that with a straight face). NBC originally dumped it after one go, but syndication made it immortal. That's why the reboot's international deals are actual news; people are still oddly obsessed with who gets to air it and where.

Fremantle has been trying to shove this revival onto the air since 2018, and after several years of quietly peddling the pitch, Fox finally took the bait. They ordered a 12-episode season for 2025, then decided to bump it all the way to ‘midseason’ 2026, and finally pushed the U.S. premiere to late January 2027. The UK and Ireland get it on Sky come May, so the rollout is already sounding a bit like airport security: different rules for every zone, and always a delay.

Who Gets to Watch (and Where, and When)?

In a move that's probably more helpful to, well, almost everyone, Fremantle landed a big multi-country deal with Amazon. Prime Video will stream the new series across a proper chunk of Europe (Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Benelux, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey), plus Canada, Latin America, and India. Not content with just the reboot, Amazon's bagged the entire archive too: that's all 241 episodes of classic Baywatch (nine seasons!), and two more of Baywatch Hawaii. The lauded Baywatch Nights, with its supernatural detour, has sadly been left out — possibly for the best, depending who you ask.

Worth noting: if you’re in the U.S., you’ll have to look elsewhere; domestic rights are firmly with Fox Entertainment Global. Fox’s own streamer hasn’t been confirmed, and Prime Video won’t put up the new series there, at least initially. Basically: Americans get Fox, the rest get Amazon, and the actual streaming date for Prime will follow after Fox's initial run, with no firm timings beyond 2027. So, if you live outside the States, this Prime Video deal’s the bit you actually care about – at least now you know where it’ll turn up, even if you still don’t know when.

New Cast, Old DNA

The faces on the beach this time round have shifted, though there are some deliberate winks to the past. Stephen Amell leads as Hobie Buchannon (yes, the son of Mitch, now all grown up and running the lifeguard hut himself). His estranged daughter, Charlie Vale, rocks up wanting to keep the lifeguard tradition going—played by Jessica Belkin. The rest of the sunburnt roster includes Shay Mitchell (Trina), Hassie Harrison (Nat), Thaddeus LaGrone (Brad), Noah Beck (Luke), and Brooks Nader (Selene). A couple of originals are lurking: David Chokachi pops by as Cody Madison, and Erika Eleniak returns briefly as Shauni McClain.

Showrunner duties go to Matt Nix, who apparently fancied a break from quirky spy procedurals, and McG is directing the opening episode. Fremantle's distribution EVP Michela Di Mondo called the Amazon agreement a 'landmark deal'—one of those industry phrases you only ever hear when someone is aiming for the cover of Variety, but fair play, it is a big one given how many territories are involved.

The only shoes left unfilled are the U.S. streaming rights. Fremantle wrangles the non-U.S. world, Fox corners America, and there’s now an awkward gap—about five months between the Fox broadcast and anyone else snapping up the domestic streaming gig. So far, plenty of movement abroad, but Americans will have to keep an eye out for whatever streamer finally lures Baywatch to their shores.