By Brianna Alleva
Netflix has been the leader of the documentary game for a while. Documentaries like Tiger King, Making a Murderer, and my personal favorite, Don’t F with Cats.
Back in 2021, Netflix came up with the idea for the Untold documentaries. Revolving around sports and sports controversies, these documentaries, averaging about 1 hour and 30 minutes, seemed like a slam dunk. Quick and easy to make, about events popular enough that people of all ages want to watch to learn or even relive the events.
Currently, there have been 21 Untold stories on Netflix! I have watched the majority of them (not all of them, to be fair) and, I believe, I have my top 5. (So far!)
Advertise on Streaming: Untold Documentaries
Audience Demographics for CTV Ads
- Primarily ages 18–44, especially Millennials and Gen Z viewers
- Slightly male-leaning audience, but more gender balanced than traditional sports broadcasts
- Strong concentration of streaming-first and cord-cutting households
- Higher likelihood of being college-educated and middle-to-upper income
- Viewers are highly engaged with sports culture, documentaries, and true-story content
Typical Advertisements for Streaming
- Sports betting and fantasy sports apps
- Athletic apparel and sneaker brands
- Beer, energy drinks, and snack food companies
- Automotive and car insurance advertisements
- Streaming services, tech products, and mobile apps
Where to Stream:
Documentaries
- Netflix
#5.
Coming in at number five is the first episode: Johnny Football.
Honestly, I feel like the only reason I have this episode on my list is that I remember Johnny Manziel and his time at Texas A&M. I also remember when he won the Heisman, so this was more nostalgic for me than anything else. The documentary itself, I feel like, could have delved a little more into who Johnny was and what he is doing now. I didn’t feel as connected to the story as I did to some of the other ones I have watched. Good, but not great.
#4.
The number four spot goes to Sign Stealer.
This event and documentary were interesting. I felt like I didn’t know much about the incident, and it was cool to hear from the guy directly involved in the controversy himself. Sign-stealing seems like an illegal-but-legal thing that every football team does anyway; this guy was just better than everyone else. I ended the documentary feeling for the guy (Connor Stalions) because of the way he was thrown under the bus during the media frenzy and lost his job with the team he loved.
# 3.
Malice at the Palace: the first documentary of the entire series.
This was just a good documentary. It felt like I was reliving something of my dad’s era that defined basketball for a while. The first-hand accounts, looking back on the event, the before, and the after, all made for a really good watch. Having the “Most infamous brawl in NBA history” immortalized in this way is also really clever. The lead-up to everything, especially, was incredible. We will probably never see a fight as bad as the one between fans and players again, hopefully.
#2
Top 2, the number 2 documentary was Crimes and Penalties.
INSANE story. I had no idea who the Danbury Trashers were before this, but now I can not stop thinking about this event. A hockey team is tied to mob activity, in which a mob-connected father gifted his son a team. They both then instruct the players to fight more than to play. From start to finish, I was enthralled by how the story played out. The father goes to jail twice in the documentary, and the son tries to do his best and create a team his dad would be proud of, which meant a tough “bad guy” team. One of the interesting things was to hear from the son, his story, and his perspective. He articulated why he did some things and made them make sense. Family, after all, is tricky.
#1.
The best of the best. Chess Mates.
Not only was the story intriguing, but the documentary itself was really well shot and edited—this one I would watch again. The story was a cheating scandal in the world of chess. The players, two chess elites: Norwegian World Master, Magnus Carlson, and American Grandmaster, Hans Neimann. Magnus accused Hans of cheating right after he beat him at a tournament. Magnus then drops out of said tournament. Throughout, Hans is adamant that he did not cheat. He admitted to cheating on the online chess platform Chess.com. The back-and-forth and the different points of view were very engaging. The documentary ended with the audience unsure who was still telling the truth, leaving them thinking about the event for a while afterward.
