We interrupt this eventful October to deliver an unexpected news story that appears to have been created in a laboratory specifically for Outside readers.
Alex Honnold—yes, Mr. Free Solo himself—will star in a two-hour live TV show on Netflix in 2026, during which he will scale the tallest skyscraper in Taiwan (gulp) without any safety ropes.
Yep, Honnold will go buildering on a very tall building on live TV, and he will do it while adhering to the risky climbing style that made him famous. According to a news release published by Netflix, the ordeal will be titled Skyscraper Live, and it will be staged on a building called Taipei 101, which stands 1,667 feet fall and has 101 floors.
In the release, Brandon Riegg, the vice president of nonfiction series and sports at Netflix, called the whole thing an “adrenaline inducing spectacle that you can’t look away from.”
I cannot argue with Riegg’s assessment.
I don’t know about you, but I am vibrating with enthusiasm and oh so many questions after learning of this strange stunt. I reached out to Honnold via email to ask and will update this story if and when he gets back to me.
Why the heck does this project exist is, of course, my primary inquiry. There’s a lot to unpack with Skyscraper Live—beyond the fact that I cannot wait for it and will absolutely watch it.
For Netflix, the stunt fits into its latest corporate goals around audience size and cash. Forgive me if discussion of a company’s revenue strategy makes your eyes glaze over—as a former business reporter, I love this stuff.
Most of us know Netflix as the company that ended our relationship with traditional television by making thousands of movies, cool TV shows, and documentaries available on demand—schedule be-damned. Well, in recent years the global streaming giant has reversed course, dipping its toes into programming that must be watched live. You know, like old-school TV.
You may have seen the 2024 comedy roast of NFL quarter Tom Brady, or the bizarre boxing match between YouTuber Jake Paul and 65-year-old former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson. Throughout 2025, Netflix has aired even more live events: a slew of WWE wrestling matches, two NFL games on Christmas Day, the recent welterweight match between boxers Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford, and the nightly comedy show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney.
Skyscraper Live is the latest live event to fit into Netflix’s growing portfolio of live shows.
Why are these live shows so important? After a decade of rapid growth, Netflix’s global membership number leveled off a few years ago, causing the company’s stock to tank. The message was clear: Netflix needs to find ways to earn money other than those $17.99 payments that you and I fork over each month.
The answer? Advertising dollars. But selling ads for Netflix shows is tricky, because one of the appeals of live streaming is that you don’t have to endure commercials for soap or booze while watching an episode of Stranger Things.
But sporting events do have breaks for commercials, and Netflix has learned that audiences turning in for a live spectacles will sit and watch the ads advertisements. After all, you can’t fast forward! My prediction is that Skyscraper Live will feature plenty of programming breaks to bring us all a word from the event’s sponsors.
What’s in it for Honnold? The Netflix release made sure to include a reference to his nonprofit, the Alex Honnold Foundation, which supports solar energy access in underserved areas.
Aside from that, Honnold will get introduced to an even broader audience on Netflix than he did with Free Solo. His cameos in current and upcoming Hollywood movies about climbing is a sign that yes, even Alex Honnold is interested in reaching normies.
There’s a good chance that millions of people across the globe will tune in to Skyscraper Live, and a certain amount of them will become stoked on climbing and Honnold.
Last year I interviewed Honnold ahead of his three-part docuseries on National Geographic titled Arctic Ascent, and I asked him what he looks for when deciding on a film or docuseries to pursue. He told me that the actual climbing involved in film isn’t atop the list.
“If I want to do a pure climbing challenge, I’ll do it for myself, I don’t need to make a film project out of it,” he told me. “You know, I’ve done a lot of frickin’ climbing projects now. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t need to make a mainstream film project or TV out of every one.”
Rather, Honnold told me he chooses his media projects based on a variety of factors: the story he wants to tell, the people involved, and whether or not the idea can reach a mainstream audience.
Honnold also said that free soloing—climbing a cliff or mountain or, yes, a skyscraper without ropes—is inherently easy for casual audiences to understand. Even my mom can understand what’s at stake: one fall, one slip, and you’re dead. Roped climbing, Honnold told me, is more complicated, and may turn away some casual viewers.
Honnold also told me that he doubted he’d ever reach an audience as big as he did with Free Solo. “No project I do will ever have the breadth or scope or scale like that,” he said.
Well, Skyscraper Live may prove him wrong. I don’t expect the thing to bring home an Academy Award. But I am willing to bet that millions of people will watch it.
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