ON MAY 5, THE CARVANA® PPA SERVES UP PARTNERS, THE FIRST REALITY DOCUSERIES INSIDE PROFESSIONAL PICKLEBALL,WHERE THE RIVALRIES ARE REAL AND THE STAKES ARE HIGHER THAN THE SCORE

ON MAY 5, THE CARVANA® PPA SERVES UP PARTNERS, THE FIRST REALITY DOCUSERIES INSIDE PROFESSIONAL PICKLEBALL,
WHERE THE RIVALRIES ARE REAL AND THE STAKES ARE HIGHER THAN THE SCORE

Official Trailer Reveals the Explosive Drama on and off the Court Inside the Sport Where Gen Z Owns the Net

The Six-Part Series Will Simulcast Across Prime Video,
The Carvana® PPA Tour YouTube Channel
And PickleballTV

NEW YORK – April 9, 2026 – Pickleball is no longer a recreational pastime. It is a global phenomenon volleying into the mainstream at a speed no one predicted, and it’s getting younger and more competitive by the year.

Now, for the first time, PARTNERS pulls viewers courtside for the fervor, feuds and fallout of professional pickleball. The six-part reality and sports crossover docuseries premieres May 5 on Prime Video in the U.S. at no additional cost with a Prime membership, the Carvana® PPA (Professional Pickleball Association) Tour YouTube Channel and PickleballTV, with all episodes dropping at once.

In pickleball, “love” isn’t even a score. In PARTNERS, it seems to be in short supply, and relationships are as volatile as a heated rally at the net. With insider access to the sport’s biggest threats and most fearless underdogs, the series pulls back the curtain on a tour often described as a traveling high school: Players train together, party together, date each other and show up at the same hotel the morning after a loss or a breakup. Everyone knows everyone’s business. Then they step onto the court, and it’s war. They play to destroy.

At the center of the season is 18-year-old pickleball ingenue Anna Leigh Waters, the undisputed queen of the court who’s outearning anyone in the WNBA. With just one phone call, she dismantles the most dominant women’s doubles team on tour. Choosing a doubles partner is one of the most consequential decisions a professional pickleball player makes, and on the Carvana® PPA Tour it is handled almost entirely through rumors, back-channel conversations and social maneuvering. Anna Leigh’s story is just the beginning:

• Chasing Anna Leigh’s spotlight is Anna Bright, fierce enough to dissolve one of the tour’s most beloved doubles pairings just to close the gap and candid enough to admit she wants to steal her sparkle.
• Catherine Parenteau and Rachel Rohrabacher, both left without a partner after Anna Leigh’s phone call, find each other, and nobody sees them coming.
• Ben Johns, the sport’s most decorated man, walks away from a winning partnership with his own brother to bet everything on 19-year-old Bolivian star Gabe Tardio.
• After navigating a very public breakup, former sweethearts Parris Todd and Hunter Johnson each channel their heartbreak into the performance of their lives.
• Federico Staksrud writes on a piece of paper every day that he is the best player in the world. At the World Championships in Dallas, he and partner Hayden Patriquin get their chance to prove it.
• Matt Wright, 48, plays with a bad back, but paired with Spanish charmer Jaume Martinez-Vich, they’re the last duo anyone wants to face across the net.
• A competitor so intense she divides the crowd, Kate Fahey is warm and funny off the court and a different person entirely when the ball is in play. She opens up about the mental toll of competing at the highest level.
• Christian Alshon plays with loud, unfiltered aggression and has beaten Ben enough times to back it up. He and partner Andrei Daescu are pushing men’s pickleball into its most competitive era yet.
• “Hurricane” Tyra Black and partner Jorja Johnson have just one thing on their minds: taking down the queen.

“People underestimate what these athletes sacrifice,” says PPA CEO Connor Pardoe, who founded the Carvana® PPA Tour at age 25. “Pickleball is everything to them – large parts of their identities, social lives, not to mention their livelihoods. When you embed cameras in an environment like this, you get something you could never script.”

Filmed across the Carvana® PPA Tour’s most defining season, PARTNERS follows a league less than five years old, racing to build notoriety, win over top players and prove just how relentlessly competitive professional pickleball has become.

The series features Anna Leigh Waters, Anna Bright, Ben Johns, Gabe Tardio, Federico Staksrud, Hayden Patriquin, Kate Fahey, Catherine Parenteau, Rachel Rohrabacher, Parris Todd, Hunter Johnson, Jaume Martinez Vich, Lucy Kovalova, Matt Wright, Quang Duong, Tyra Black, Jorja Johnson, Jackie Kawamoto, Jade Kawamoto, Zane Navratil, Christian Alshon, Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, J.W. Johnson and Carvana® PPA Tour CEO Connor Pardoe.

PARTNERS is produced by Shutterstock Studios in association with Wavelength Productions LLC. Executive producers include Mark Infante, Michele Gauthier, Aiden Darné and Jon Weidman. Dan Bradley (Sprint) serves as showrunner.

About the Carvana® PPA Tour

Shutterstock Studios is an award-winning global content engine that develops, produces and distributes premium series, documentaries and branded entertainment designed to extend brand narratives beyond traditional campaigns, push the boundaries of storytelling and move audiences. Combining global first-in-class creativity, agility and next-generation production tools – including a robust suite of AI services for hyperscalers and global brands – Shutterstock Studios delivers work that performs in market, scales globally and never loses sight of the brand. Recognized by the Clios, the Webbys, the Anthem and the Cannes Lions Awards, Shutterstock provides the expertise and reach expected at the highest levels of the industry.

About Wavelength

Wavelength is a globally recognized independent studio with a long list of industry recognition – including Emmys, Tonys, Grammy nominations, and Oscar shortlists. Wavelength’s diverse portfolio includes Academy Award®-shortlisted 32 SOUNDS, Netflix’s RATHER, Venice winner THANK YOU VERY MUCH, ON SWIFT HORSES, Emmy winners FEELS GOOD MAN, ART AND KRIMES BY KRIMES as well as the beloved WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR. Theater credits include Tony-winning The Outsiders, Tony-nominated The Who’s Tommy and Here Lies Love, and Burlesque. In 2025, Wavelength cemented its commitment to sports and branded entertainment by acquiring Duplex Deli, the production agency founded by Dan Bradley and Jon Weidman. Wavelength’s branded content division brings film-level craft to brand storytelling, partnering with leading brands such as HOKA, Marriott, lululemon, MINI, Uber Eats, Nike, Adidas, and Pepsi. Wavelength was recently honored with 13 Telly Awards, including two gold awards for HOKA’s “Humans of HOKA” and three gold awards for De Beers’ “Talent Unearthed.”