Honoring the Bestof the Internet
Webby Streaming Person of the Year
Five Word Speech
"i Am Just Getting Started."
- Shonda Rhimes
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About Webby Streaming Person of the Year
Honoring an individual whose work in streaming film and television has driven groundbreaking storytelling and transformed how global audiences engage with content online.
Shonda Rhimes has defined the streaming era with ambition, authorship, and undeniable cultural force. Through Shondaland and her landmark partnership with Netflix, she has built a global storytelling engine that shapes not only what audiences watch, but how they gather around it, talk about it, and return to it. In 2026, Bridgerton Season 4 premiered at No. 1 worldwide with 39.7 million views in its first four days, reigniting a worldwide fandom and a cultural language all its own.
At the same time, Grey's Anatomy ranked as the second most-streamed series in the United States in 2025 with 40.9 billion minutes viewed — surpassing even Stranger Things by nearly one billion minutes. More than twenty years after its debut, audiences are still choosing to spend their time inside the worlds she built. That kind of longevity is rare. That kind of loyalty is earned.
Few creators have shaped both the present and the future of streaming television with this level of scale and staying power. For her extraordinary creative leadership and her lasting impact on how global audiences discover, binge, and live with television online, it is our great privilege to honor Shonda Rhimes as the 2026 Webby Streaming Person of the Year.
At the same time, Grey's Anatomy ranked as the second most-streamed series in the United States in 2025 with 40.9 billion minutes viewed — surpassing even Stranger Things by nearly one billion minutes. More than twenty years after its debut, audiences are still choosing to spend their time inside the worlds she built. That kind of longevity is rare. That kind of loyalty is earned.
Few creators have shaped both the present and the future of streaming television with this level of scale and staying power. For her extraordinary creative leadership and her lasting impact on how global audiences discover, binge, and live with television online, it is our great privilege to honor Shonda Rhimes as the 2026 Webby Streaming Person of the Year.
