Dropping a few days before season five of karate-themed hit Cobra Kai starts streaming on Netflix, a new competition series from Warner Bros. Discovery is coming to Discovery+ next month.
Kiddie Kai (six x 60 minutes) is produced by New York-based Hot Snakes Media and set in the “Blackbelt Byway,” a martial arts hot spot in the Southeast US. Following kids and their families through a season of training and competition, it also explores the larger role martial arts plays in their lives, from connecting in a community, to gaining confidence and learning discipline.
The first three eps will launch simultaneously on Discovery+ on September 6, featuring world champion and Black Belt Hall of Fame member John Chung, Shihan Cliff Kinchen, Sensei Jeff McGregor and Sifu Mark Williams as rival martial arts instructors. (Shihan, Sensei and Sifu are honorific titles indicating mastery.)
Although the shows are not related, Kiddie Kai is due out in the same week that Netflix is releasing the fifth season of Cobra Kai (September 9), its popular older-skewing sequel to the Karate Kid films from the 1980s and 1990s.
This new show announcement follows a week of news about deep cuts at WBD streamer HBO Max, with a heavy emphasis on animation and kids and family content. The company has also recently revealed that it is stepping away from kids live action as it resets its programming agenda ahead of merging Discovery+ with HBO Max into a single streaming entity in 2023.