PPA Tour launches Partners, first behind-the-scenes pickleball docuseries

The PPA Tour is taking pro pickleball far beyond scoreboards with Partners, a six-part reality and sports crossover docuseries built around the rivalries, pressure and personal drama that shape the tour. The series premieres May 5, 2026, and will stream in the United States on Prime Video at no additional cost with a Prime membership, while also running on the Carvana PPA Tour YouTube channel and PickleballTV, with all six episodes dropping at once.

Shutterstock Studios produced the series with the Carvana PPA Tour and describes it as the first-ever on- and off-court look behind the scenes of professional pickleball. The trailer positions the show less as a match recap than as a personality-driven franchise, leaning into the feuds, fallout and off-court dynamics that have become as much a part of modern pro sports as the points themselves.

The cast pulls together some of the sport’s most recognizable names, including Anna Leigh Waters, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Catherine Parenteau, Rachel Rohrabacher, Parris Todd, Ben Johns, Gabe Tardio, Hayden Patriquin, Christian Alshon, CJ Klinger, Hunter Johnson, Federico Staksrud, Zane Navratil and Jaume Martinez Vich. PPA leadership also appears in the project through Connor Pardoe and Samin Odhwani, giving the series access to both the athletes and the people running the show.

The trailer suggests the strongest story lines will come from the relationships and tensions around the tour, not just the result of a medal match. Deadline reported that the series follows players as they train, party, date and deal with losses, breakups and contract disputes. Among the plotlines previewed are Anna Bright’s push to chase Anna Leigh Waters’ spotlight and the breakup-and-realignment thread involving Catherine Parenteau and Rachel Rohrabacher.

The timing matters because the PPA Tour is already operating like a media company as much as a sanctioning body. PickleballTV bills itself as a 24/7 pickleball network with more than 3,000 live hours of pro coverage and on-demand content, and the tour has said its athlete stable includes the #1 female and male players, Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns. The tour also announced a multiyear Prime Video deal in 2023 for live events, setting up a long-running relationship with the platform that now carries Partners.

The broader backdrop is just as telling. Deadline noted that pickleball is played in 78 countries, has nearly 20 million players in the U.S. and generates more than $30 million in annual prize money. Partners arrives at a moment when pickleball is trying to become more than a participation sport, packaging its top stars into a bingeable product that can sell the lifestyle, the travel and the personalities as much as the paddles and points.