Tom Brady vs Kevin Hart: Who Won the Roast Ratings Showdown?

Netflix ended its 2026 Netflix Is a Joke Festival by throwing Kevin Hart on the spit for a full-scale roast. It was loud, messy, star-studded, and exactly the kind of thing Netflix loves because, frankly, these roasts spike engagement like crazy. The only question now: does Hart’s big night have a shot at topping Tom Brady’s monster numbers from last year?

The room, the roster, the vibe

The Roast of Kevin Hart went down on Mother ’s Day at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, with Shane Gillis steering the chaos. Hart, 46, took shots from a sharp lineup and plenty of famous faces showed up just to watch him squirm.

• On the mic: Sheryl Underwood, Chelsea Handler, Pete Davidson, Regina Hall, and more taking swings at Hart
• In the crowd: John Stamos, Machine Gun Kelly, Jennifer Lopez, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Jay Shetty soaking it up

So, how does this stack up to Tom Brady’s roast?

Brady’s Netflix roast (May 5, 2024) was a runaway hit by the platform’s favorite stat: minutes watched. During the week of May 6, 2024, The Roast of Tom Brady racked up 1.67 billion minutes viewed, which set a new weekly record for a Netflix special. For comparison, the previous best was Chris Rock’s Selective Outrage in March 2023 with 798 million minutes. That’s not a small jump. Brady’s also said he wanted to do the roast in part because he thinks people have gotten a little too sensitive, and clearly, the audience showed up for it.

As for Hart’s roast: it aired Sunday, May 10, so it’s too soon for reliable viewership data. Expect the first meaningful look at the numbers once Netflix’s internal charts update.

What it felt like in the building

"The vibe was over the moon," roastmaster Jeff Ross said the next day. "Kevin seemed like he was on cloud nine. His wife, Eniko, really loved being in on it, and she was a great sport as well. What a way to spend Mother’s Day."

The big swings at Brady’s roast (2024)

If you remember Brady’s night, the comics circled the same target over and over: his ex, Gisele Bundchen, and the messy tail end of his career. Hart even mocked the idea that Gisele pushed him to retire and jabbed Brady’s 8-9 final season. Kim Kardashian leaned into those Brady dating rumors with a deadpan nod to the chatter. No surprise, that roast moved like a highlight reel of tabloid-adjacent zingers.

Hart’s roast highlights (2026)

Brady returned the favor this time, coming onstage with a baby-sized jersey for Hart, which is a clean, simple dunk on Hart’s height that pretty much anyone can process at a glance. Brady also went straight at Hart’s 2017 infidelity scandal in Las Vegas — the one Hart publicly apologized for while Eniko was pregnant — threading it through a faux-stern monologue that kept breaking into Vegas affair jokes. It was blunt, but this is a roast; blunt is the assignment.

Elsewhere, Pete Davidson tossed out a line about political commentator Charlie Kirk that drew heat after the show from a producer on The Charlie Kirk Show. That bit clearly landed outside the room, too, and not in a fun way.

Bottom line

Netflix knows exactly what it’s doing here: put a huge star on the dais, let the comics go mean for two hours, and count the minutes. Brady set an absurd benchmark in 2024 with 1.67 billion minutes in a week. Hart’s roast had the names, the energy, and a couple of genuine wince-laugh moments. Now we wait to see if the numbers back up the noise.