Chances are that if you’re on the internet, you’ve heard about what is happening with Watcher Entertainment. Launched by Steven Lim, Ryan Bergara, and Shana Madej, these three BuzzFeed ex-employees created a space where they had more creative control over their career and the content they provided their viewers. This past Friday (April 19) they decided that they were going to move all of their content behind a paywall and launch their own streaming service. Fans were rightfully mad, for a multitude of reasons that we’ll be discussing here. And even after Watcher released their apology, I still think Watcher fans have a right to be upset with the way that all of this was handled.
Firstly, there’s been a lot of discussion going around about who is at fault. I think that is the most important thing to address before getting into why fans have a right to be mad. Steven, Ryan, and Shane are adults. They make their own choices and decided to put their content behind a paywall. It has been extremely disheartening to see Watcher fans exclude one of the three founders because he’s always been about “eating the rich.” At the end of the day, even Shane signed off on this. Even if he had hesitations, he sat down with Steven and Ryan and made that video, knowing full well that this would change their company and affect their fans. There is no room for targeted harassment or racism against Steven or Ryan because Shane is a fan favorite.
Now that that’s out of the way, I do understand why Watcher wants to give us a “TV experience.” As a long-time fan and someone in the entertainment business, I understand that doing something for such a long time gets old. I also understand that they want to continue evolving as creators. Steven, Ryan, and Shane are entitled to take their channel in the direction that they want if they’re feeling uninspired. But that doesn’t absolve them from the backlash that happened when they made their announcement that they were leaving YouTube and charging their fans a fee for their content because they want to produce higher quality or TV-like content. That’s especially true when the fans have not evolved in the direction that Watcher wants.
For the last couple of months, I have noticed a shift in Watcher fan reactions to their content. Steven, Ryan, and Shane are going for higher quality content without understanding that it’s not the reason why their longtime fans love their content in the first place. And if they want to switch over to a subscription-based service, they need to change their core fan base. Because the fan base doesn’t want fancy. Even during the BuzzFeed days, fancy is not what sold us on everything that Ryan and Shane were doing. The fact that they were sitting in a small room, talking random nonsense, is the reason they are loved. I can’t comment on Steven because I’ve never watched his content besides those videos where food is wrapped in gold. But if the gang is done with making the same content they have for years and have aspirations for more, it has to be a gradual shift in changing their fan base to something different than what they currently have.
Even after the apology, I have been left with a sour taste in my mouth because it has made me realize that they are not listening to their fan base and think that we will blindly follow them into a subscription service without question. It makes me think that Steven, Ryan, and Shane don’t know their fan base as well as they think they do. Because putting everything behind a paywall isn’t something that happens overnight. This has been in the works for months and no one told them that this could alienate their fan base or irrevocably harm their reputation and make it so current fans do not trust them anymore??? And again, they are absolutely entitled to want to create different content. But either you start shifting your fan base or you start a new channel if you want to do that. Bring in new blood and see where it takes you. But don’t forget the people that supported you to get to this place.
The decision to charge for a new streaming service, wipe their content from YouTube, and not even give their paying Patreon subscribers free access to the new streaming service, feels like they forgot those who supported them from the start.
And it’s not like Watcher fans were the only thing that got Steven, Ryan, and Shane to where they are. They have put in the hard work. They have built a business with multiple employees, a big office, and the production value to back it. But at the end of the day, we are part of that business. We are the ones who watch their videos and go to their shows or buy their merch. It’s a back-and-forth kind of relationship. And I am hesitant to call it a relationship because there is a kind of parasocial element to this. But they are the business and we are the consumers. And like any other business, there will be a backlash if their ideals or company direction doesn’t align with the consumer base and what they have come to you for.
This whole mess feels like Steven, Ryan, and Shane put their own TV dreams and patting their wallets to pay for an over-inflated business that they themselves have admitted cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars to create when the current fan base doesn’t want TV quality. There’s a reason why many of us feel like the TV industry is failing and it’s because studios are more concerned with making money than creating great content that viewers actually want. That’s why I hope that the backlash and the apology are a signal that Watcher Entertainment is going to take their audience more into consideration as they continue to grow, as growth is an inevitability and we truly want to support them as they do so. Just not on our backs as many of us are struggling to pay for groceries while they’re driving Teslas, building a business, and traveling the world.
Now that we have an apology and Watcher changing their whole model to basically just be kind of what they already have with Patreon, I hope Watcher fans also take a look at themselves. Because the racism and targeting of only some of the members of Watcher Entertainment or their partners, that wasn’t okay. We can ask for our favorite creators to do better, even when they are seemingly going for a money grab instead of downsizing their business and budgeting their money, without turning into a**holes ourselves. Either way, Watcher has a long road ahead of them to gain their viewers’ confidence again. Some fans subscribed before the apology and many have eaten up the apology like nothing despite its scripted feeling and the fact that this streaming subscription announcement didn’t happen overnight. It’s definitely been in the works for months and I won’t feel bad for a business that is bringing in all that money with ads, endorsements, Patreon, shows, and merch who then beg for understanding on why they needed more money or our money. The damage is done.
