You can always rely on The Wit to have its finger on the pulse of the hottest digital-first formats from around the world. MD Caroline Servy offered a new snapshot in her presentation at the TellyCast Digital Content Forum today.
Servy’s first trend: “YouTube is TV… the battle between YouTube and TV is over. The question is no longer whether YouTube matters, but how to build a business there.”
She added that content creators are increasingly respected as IP developers in their own right, creating formats that can travel across the digital ecosystem and onto linear television.
One recent example is Last Friend Standing, an iteration of YouTuber Michou’s ’Terminal’ format. Its latest series sees eight celebrity/creator duos dropped into an abandoned port for a 48-hour Fortnite-style battle royale.
Creators are also working with TV companies to reinvent classic formats for Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha audiences. Shark Tank: Creators launched in Brazil and Mexico as a YouTube show, with creators pitching their projects to investors.
Also in Brazil, Banijay Entertainment has worked with digital studio Podpah TV on a YouTube-only edition of Ilha Da Tentaçao – which you’ll know as Temptation Island.
Creator-led livestreaming events continue to make waves. Schlag Den Aaron was filmed in Germany and livestreamed on YouTube and Twitch, based on existing shiny-floor TV format Schlag den Star.
Creators are also developing new formats inspired by the TV shows they watched in their youth. Spanish show Los Empeños de Ibai (‘Ibai’s Pawn Shop’) saw YouTuber Ibai Llanos open his own pawn shop to haggle over collectibles – which were then given away to fans.
Servy noted that some of YouTube’s current blockbusters are “genre-blenders” combining action, comedy, horror and/or game shows. That includes a glut of escape-room formats – the top 45 of which have collectively generated 310m views since the start of August.
French YouTuber Inoxtag combined an escape game with an action-adventure and buddy movie with 24H Pour Braquer Une Banque (’24 Hours to Rob a Bank’) – a 90-minute special on YouTube to follow up his previous Everest-climbing feat.
Another show, Fængslet (‘The Prison’) from Denmark, locked up eight popular creators in a former state prison, and put them through physical and psychological challenges – including escaping.
The stakes are also getting higher in serialised digital-first formats. Track Me Down, from Germany, sees creator Elias tasked with staying undetected for four days while being hunted by four other creators – ‘seekers’ – in a contest that hops countries across Europe.
The next show highlighted by Servy combined travel, sports challenges and daily vlogging. Golfing 50 States in 50 Days sees a team of golfing creators go on a road trip across the US, mixing friendly competition with travel vlogs in a different state every day.
Another big YouTube trend this year are guessing games, with 240m views from 117 hits in this genre since the start of August. One success is Qui Trouvera le Meilleur Container? led by YouTuber Squeezie, with five creators competing for containers of gifts on behalf of individual fans.
Meanwhile, from Germany there is branded guessing game House of Power, commissioned by energy company E.ON. The eight-episode YouTube show sees celebrities and creators sharing a house, completing energy-transition challenges while voting out imposters who are trying to sabotage the group.
Another branded guessing game came from South Korea, produced with Google. Na Yeong-Seok vs Mangnae PD is a talent show where a veteran producer develops and produces a show with a celebrity, while junior producers do the same thing (with the same star) aided by Google’s Gemini AI. The resulting pilots are uploaded to YouTube, with viewers deciding which wins.
Servy moved on to dating shows hosted in front of live studio audiences, with a strong comedic focus. Why Are You Single? debuted on Tubi this summer, based on a format originally developed by its host, comedian Marie Faustin, as a stage show.
Micro-series inevitably featured in the presentation, with Servy highlighting The Wit’s global rankings for micro-dramas as a barometer of what’s breaking through.
Among the recent hits: Me Conta No Caminho from Brazil is a branded drama focusing on friendship, identify, grief and menstrual health; Una Novia Por… from Spain, an LGBTQ+ rom-com about a woman who falls in love with her brother’s girlfriend, but when visiting her hometown realises she’s still in the closet; and 21 Dager from Norway, a micro-drama from broadcaster NRK about a woman mistakenly diagnosed as having 21 days to live.
