For years, Netflix executives have been the biggest cheerleaders of TV bingeing.

The Los Gatos streamer pioneered releasing all episodes of a show all at once, causing people to sit in front of their screens for hours to consume full seasons in a single weekend.

But last weekend, the Hollywood disruptor began its foray into a format as old as TV broadcasting itself — live programming — with a highly anticipated comedy special from Chris Rock. Rock became the first artist to perform a live comedy special on Netflix with his show, titled “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage.”

Netflix’s binge-and-burn model helped make it the biggest subscription streaming service, with about 231 million paying members globally.

But now that the market has become flooded with rival streamers, simply having a large library of shows and a slate of popular original programming available on-demand is no longer enough. Netflix is looking for ways to turn its shows into must-see events.

Under pressure to control costs while still growing their businesses, Netflix and other streaming services have canceled shows and laid off workers. At the same time, Netflix has tried out new kinds of content (including games) and borrowed from some of the old ways of the TV business, such as advertising.

Getting into live shows — an effort to encourage old-school appointment viewing — is part of that effort to fend off competition and boost viewership.

“Netflix is looking for ways to be competitive and to show consumers why they need to stay subscribed to Netflix, because now there’s so many choices,” said Brett Sappington, vice president at Culver City-based market research firm Interpret, which advises companies in media, tech and entertainment. “Netflix now has to prove every month why it’s still valuable.”

Netflix declined to comment.

By dipping its toe into the live TV space, Netflix is discovering what traditional broadcasters and cable have understood for generations. Events like the Super Bowl or World Series are popular among viewers because it’s an experience everyone can talk about in real time.

And though ratings for awards shows like the Oscars have fallen over the years, they still draw millions of viewers and spark conversations in the culture because, as last year’s awards show proved, anything can happen in a live setting. That similarly drew people to tune in to the Chris Rock special, which happened nearly a year after the notorious Oscars slap incident.

“Live is able to draw consumers in a way that on-demand just doesn’t in volume,” Sappington said. “If you can only see it on Netflix, then everyone who saw it has to go to Netflix to make sure that they are part of it. They don’t want to miss out.”

Last year, Netflix hosted an in-person comedy festival with 336 comedians performing in Los Angeles, selling more than 260,000 tickets. During one of the performances, comedian Dave Chappelle was tackled by a man carrying a replica handgun at the Hollywood Bowl. Rock later joked onstage, “Was that Will Smith?” Netflix has also signed a deal to stream the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Netflix starting in 2024.

“There’s nothing particularly novel about live television, but we are dabbling in it, starting with our Chris Rock live concert, to try to create the excitement around live for those things that are uniquely more exciting to be live,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, in an earnings discussion in January.

Other streaming services have already bet on live events. Paramount+ simulcast the Grammys with CBS in February, while Disney+ aired a live Elton John concert from Dodger Stadium last year.

One major area of interest for streamers is sports, long seen as the final frontier for online video — and one of the last things keeping the traditional cable bundle intact.

Amazon pays $1 billion annually to stream 15 Thursday night NFL football games, while Apple TV+ has agreements with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer to carry games.

Netflix has resisted the urge to dive into live sports, a business that comes with astronomical costs because of the license fees popular leagues are able to extract for broadcast and streaming rights.

“We’ve not been able to figure out how to deliver profits in renting big league sports in our subscription model,” Sarandos said in January.

Instead, Netflix is going through its tried-and-true route of stand-up comedy, a category it has long invested in and promoted.