Servant of the People (2015 TV series)

Servant of the People, also known as Servant of the Nation, is a Ukrainian political satire comedy series created and produced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He stars as the main character, Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko, a high-school history teacher in his 30s. He unexpectedly gets elected for the President of Ukraine after a video filmed by one of his students goes viral, showing him making a profane rant against government corruption in his country. The series ran for three seasons between 2015 and 2019, as well as a film adaptation released in 2016.
The series was produced by Kvartal 95, which was founded by Zelenskyy himself. The studio would soon become involved in Ukrainian politics, and in 2018 a political party of the same name as the show was registered. Running as its candidate, Zelenskyy was elected president of Ukraine in 2019.
After uploading the footage of delivering a profane rant about corruption in Ukraine to YouTube, Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko (Volodymyr Zelenskyy), an absent-minded high-school history teacher who lives with his parents, becomes an Internet sensation overnight. Holoborodko's students launch a crowdfunding campaign to register his candidacy in Ukraine's presidential race without his knowledge, eventually propelling their teacher to political victory as the new president of Ukraine. While in office, Vasyl is initially overwhelmed at his newfound responsibilities but gradually eases into his presidential duties and decides to weed out corruption among the oligarchy in his government.
Servant of the People aired on the 1+1 channel in Ukraine. The studio also posted all episodes for free on YouTube. The first season of the show was added to Netflix in select countries in 2017. Sometime in 2021, Netflix lost licensing rights. In March 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Netflix re-licensed the first season, and in May 2022 added the second and third seasons for 33+ countries. The Netflix release combines the first two episodes into one in both season one and two, resulting in 23 episodes instead of 24 for both seasons.
Belarusian TV channel Belarus-1 started broadcasting the show in evening prime time on 11 November 2019.
The Russian channel TNT aired the pilot episode of the show's first series on 11 December 2019, claiming it did so as "a marketing move to raise awareness of the platform". TNT cut a scene from the episode in which president-elect Goloborodko asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin wore a Hublot watch, a joke referring to a well-known anti-Putin chant in Ukraine.
In the United States, HITN presents the series in a Spanish language version. Jewish Life Television carries the series in its original Russian and Ukrainian languages, with English subtitles.
A film adaptation of the series, Servant of the People 2, was released in 2016. The second season used footage from the film to expand on its plot and was released in 2017, bringing the film into the series' main continuity.
Zelenskyy would later mirror his character's rise to political power in being elected President of Ukraine in 2019. After his victory was announced, Zelenskyy walked onto the stage at his campaign headquarters with the show's theme playing.
In the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and Zelenskyy's wartime leadership, the show's popularity received a notable boost. Broadcasting rights have been requested by various foreign companies. On March 16, Netflix announced that season 1 of the series would be available to US streamers again due to popular demand. On May 16, Netflix added seasons 2 and 3.
During 2022, Zelenskyy won widespread admiration as a resistance figure against Russia and Putin, leading to the series becoming more popular in turn. Foreign broadcasting companies have sought to air Servant of the People on their own channels.:
An American remake was ordered by Hulu, with British writer Simon Farnaby involved in its development, though the show was scrapped when Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States.
After the premiere of the original show, the rights to make Poland-based remake were bought by Okil Khamidov, however no studio wanted to pick it up. In 2022, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Zelenskyy's wartime leadership, the original show's popularity received a notable boost internationally. Considering that, Polsat had picked up the remake. The show, titled Servant of the People, was premiered on 4 March 2023. It was created by Okil Khamidov, and directed by Khamidov and Maciej Bieliński. It was made by Polot Media, and distributed by Polsat. Currently it has one season of 24 episodes, and a second season is in production. The first episode of the series was sent by Khamidov to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who reportedly liked it, and was glad that the series was finally made, after years of attempts.