I cover creators at Like & Subscribe, a standalone Ankler Media newsletter that’s being sampled today for paid subscribers to The Ankler. I wrote about how YouTube creators’ shows are faring on Netflix and reported on reps’ race to sign buzzy Love Island stars. I’m natalie@theankler.com
Writers Aaron Karo and Michael Doneger had multiple projects stuck in TV development purgatory when they struck gold with a new idea: a buddy comedy about a lonely guy who builds a robot best friend. Instead of pitching Friend Material to buyers around Hollywood, they decided to make it themselves. With $1,000 they pulled together, a camera Doneger already owned and a little help from their friends, they whipped up 12 episodes and began posting them to Instagram.
Now, less than three months later, Friend Material has been viewed nearly 1.5 million times, and brands have already reached out to the duo about backing a second season — though their ultimate goal is to adapt the three-minute Instagram episodes into a half-hour series for a streamer or TV network. “What social media has given us is an opportunity to build audience and community,” says Karo. “When we have producer meetings now, we can say, ‘Look how many people have already watched this.’”
These days in Hollywood, where a series greenlight is rarer than a Botox-free face, creatives increasingly are turning to social media to tell scripted stories. Writer-producer Jon Stahl, who’s been tracking the boom in vertically-shot scripted comedies, tells me his tally recently ticked above two dozen, noting, “The space is accelerating rapidly.”
To name a few, there’s three-year-old Brooklyn Coffee Shop, where the milks are made in house and the acerbic comedy is a hit with audiences; The Chit Show, a workplace comedy created by two members of The Groundlings; viral one-woman TikTok show The Group Chat; and Netflix real estate star Ryan Serhant’s first scripted original, The Broker.Age. And while all these shows share a vertical orientation with the red-hot microdrama space, they also occupy their own niche.
Last year, my Ankler Media colleague Elaine Low wrote about the growing indie TV business, which has been a much harder path than indie film, though many in Hollywood would love to see it become a fully viable model for creating and financing new series. While they’re launching on an even smaller scale, super low-budget shows like Friend Material — developed for social distribution — are proof that you don’t need the backing of a major TV studio or streamer to make a serialized hit.
And as Hollywood sifts through the surprise box-office successes of Obsession and Backrooms looking for clues about how to attract young audiences, the path to turning one of these projects into the next watercooler TV comedy is becoming smoother. Dan Weinstein, co-CEO of digital management firm Underscore, tells me calls have been coming in for clients across his firm’s roster, including for Brooklyn Coffee Shop creator Pooja Tripathi. “We needed this moment,” he says. “A lot of people are trying to figure out how they can de-risk content spend by leaning into built-in audience.”
Today I talk to several creators and former top Amazon exec Joe Lewis about how this pipeline is poised to shake up TV’s status quo, including:
- Why scripted creators are finding more success on Instagram than YouTube
- Why Lewis is betting on a series about bumbling park rangers — and how they’re building it to succeed no matter how it’s distributed
- What Lewis offered creators Jeremiah Dunlap and Cory Quintard that sealed the deal even though they were in talks with a Hollywood studio
- How Tripathi has built Brooklyn Coffee Shop with brand funding — and the viewership threshold that gave her confidence to grow
- The minimum follower count you need to launch a show successfully, according to one comedy creator
- What’s at stake if Hollywood comes calling, and why some creators aren’t jumping right away
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