Jubilee Media, the digital media studio behind YouTube formats Surrounded and Middle Ground, has launched its first dedicated short-form series, People Watching. A second format, Dateable, is due to debut on December 8 across the YouTube Shorts, Instagram and TikTok accounts of Jubilee’s dating and relationships brand Nectar.
The two-series rollout was first reported by TheWrap. People Watching (pictured) premiered on November 11 and is now available to view on Jubilee’s YouTube channel, which has 11.1m subscribers. The series is being distributed across YouTube Shorts, Instagram and TikTok.
People Watching gives players binoculars, a category and a limited number of guesses to pick out someone in a crowd who fits a given description. The format plays on the assumptions people make about strangers based on first impressions.
Dateable takes a similar approach to online dating. In each episode, a single person wears a sign reading “AM I DATEABLE?” in a busy New York park while the host asks passers-by to review their dating profile in front of them. The host then delivers a verdict based on the feedback. The series will run across Nectar’s Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts accounts. Both shows are Jubilee’s first productions filmed in New York City.
Nectar’s longer-form dating series Nectarhouse also returns for a third season on November 14, exclusively on its YouTube channel. The show brings 10 Gen Z singles together under one roof for 100 hours and asks them to privately disclose who they are most attracted to. TheWrap reported that the first two seasons drew more than 51 million views across platforms.
Jubilee has also renewed its current affairs debate series The Split for a second season, due in 2027. Its livestream covering the US midterm elections drew 375,000 viewers, according to TheWrap.
Takeaway: The two launches bring Jubilee’s approach to repeatable formats to short-form feeds. Both shows have a premise viewers can grasp in seconds, with a reveal or verdict that gives each episode a payoff of its own. That makes them a way to reach viewers who may never have watched a full episode of Surrounded. There’s a commercial opportunity, too. A recurring series gives sponsors a format they can appear in across multiple episodes and platforms, with Dateable an obvious fit for brands looking to reach an audience interested in dating and relationships.
