PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
YouTube Blurs The Line Between TV And Digital Creators
The new TV? // Image by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E
Professionally shot, celebrity-filled unscripted shows are now a dime a dozen on YouTube, minting hosts into TV stars who are nearly indistinguishable from traditional network talent.
The Big Picture: YouTube is now the most-streamed platform on televisions, commanding 12.5% of all viewership in January of this year. With smart TVs now ubiquitous, most audiences no longer distinguish between watching YouTube and conventional television. That’s creating a major paradigm shift for talent, guests, and brands alike.
Behind The Scenes: As opportunities in traditional TV shrink, YouTube is picking up the slack.
SubwayTakes’ Kareem Rahma, Hot Ones’ Sean Evans, Recess Therapy’s Julian Shapiro-Barnum, Feeding Starving Celebrities’ Quenlin Blackwell, and Chicken Shop Date’s Amelia Dimoldenberg have all attracted major brand investment and awards consideration.
They’re also launching shows that either stalled in development at conventional outlets — Rahma’s Keep the Meter Running was originally set up at CNN — or reinvent familiar network formats, like Shapiro-Barnum’s upcoming late-night-style series, Outside Tonight.
Established Hollywood talent has also started producing programming for YouTube or moving their existing shows to the platform, including Mark Wahlberg, Ziwe, Trevor Noah, and Phil Rosenthal.
Major unscripted TV producers are beginning to embrace YouTube as well. Bunim/Murray — the company behind The Challenge and Project Runway — recently launched The Confessional on the platform.
Last Episode: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said creators like these show hosts are thriving on the platform because “they want to be entrepreneurs, own their work, and have a direct relationship with an audience.” But that doesn’t mean they aren’t also pursuing success on platforms still viewed as more premium. Ms. Rachel and Mark Rober now have shows on Netflix, while MrBeast is on Prime Video — all while continuing to build on YouTube. The arrangement allows them to benefit from both worlds.
In other words, talent can have its cake and eat it too.
Next Season: As advertisers increasingly treat YouTube like any other streaming service, cable channel, or TV network, expect more talent to migrate to the platform in search of greater creative control.
Together with Masterworks
Someone just spent $236,000,000 on a painting. Here’s why it matters for your wallet.
Late last year, a Klimt sold for the highest price ever paid for a modern artwork at auction.
An outlier, sure — but not a fluke. US auction sales grew 23.1% in 2025, while the $1-5 million segment surged 40.8% year over year.
When the S&P 500 posted its worst quarter since 2022 last month, traditional diversifiers like bonds and bitcoin declined as well.
Even with the market rebound in mid-April, analysts at Goldman Sachs and Vanguard are still projecting low single-digit annualized returns from 2024 through 2034.
So, what kind of investment is largely indifferent to the forces driving everything else?
Masterworks lets you invest in shares of artworks by icons like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.
Access to an asset class with historically low correlation and strong appreciation potential from 1995-2025.*
Net annualized returns on 28 sold works held for 12 months or more have reached 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%.
More than $1.3 billion has been invested across over 500 artworks.
Shares can sell out quickly, but TFP subscribers can skip the waitlist.
Skip the waitlist to join Masterworks.
*According to Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.