Jake & Logan Paul: Secrets of the Producer Who Shaped Their Outrageous Story for TV
As streamers court creators, Andrew Fried shares how the 'formidable' and 'frustrating' princes of the manosphere somehow ended up on Max
I write about creators, digital platforms and the $250B global industry they power. I reported on Emma Chamberlain’s financial struggles with her coffee company, why Carla Lalli Music lost money making videos for YouTube and what Dude Perfect is doing with its $100M PE investment. Email me tips, ideas and memes at natalie@theankler.com
We may look back on the past year as another big inflection point for Hollywood: when the legacy companies stopped chasing Netflix and started chasing YouTube. While there’s no catching the ad-supported streamer, which just this week (per Nielsen) hit a new record 11.6 percent of all TV consumption, there are signs that the filmed entertainment industry is starting to wake up to the power of creators and their millions-strong audiences.
I wrote about this in February when I scooped that Netflix was having conversations with creators on the heels of its successes with kids-centric YouTube juggernauts CoComelon and Ms. Rachel. And last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix, Peacock and Disney are all exploring creator-led shows, looking for their version of MrBeast’s Beast Games (or as close as they can get to that phenom), which drew more than 50 million viewers, according to Amazon, and made the company at least $100 million per WSJ.
Of course all of Hollywood is having conversations with creators — it’d be foolish not to capitalize on dynamic, engaging personalities who’ve already built massive followings and have proof that they can deliver compelling content on the (relative) cheap. It’s smart for creators to take these meetings, too. A Hollywood deal lends a stamp of legitimacy and potentially draws fresh audiences (and brand deals). But whereas creators largely used to think they needed Hollywood, they’ve gotten a lot smarter about the media deals they strike.
There’s a reason you haven’t seen many creator-first shows get announced even though I’ve heard these conversations have been going on for a long while. Creators have a lot of autonomy on YouTube and other social platforms, where top performers earn tens of millions (in the case of MrBeast, hundreds of millions) annually without giving up creative control. Dealmakers in the space tell me that streamers like Netflix haven’t yet put compelling enough offers on the table for creators to devote time and resources to essentially port their YouTube audiences to new platforms.
Some creators will absolutely find value in striking a deal with a TV network or streamer. Take Beast Games. Not only did it expose MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) to audiences that might not have been watching him on YouTube, but it also proved he could dominate in any medium he chose. Others might find more value in re-packaging their existing YouTube content and licensing it to a streamer like Netflix, which is what Ms. Rachel did. But one thing’s for sure — if Netflix, Peacock and Disney want to lure creators, they’ll have to pay a premium now.
Two creators seizing the opportunity are brothers Logan Paul and Jake Paul, who star in and executive produce a new docuseries, Paul American, about their outrageous and outrageously controversial lives.
Logan, 29, and Jake, 28, each have about 70 million followers across platforms, host popular podcasts, make millions each year ($9.8 million for Logan and $13.6 million for Jake, per Forbes estimates) and have powerful voices that helped sway the election in favor of Donald Trump. Now the always-on entertainers are bringing their stories to Max.
I’ve seen the first four of the series’ eight episodes, and while official reviews are embargoed until the morning of its March 27 premiere (not necessarily a great sign about how Max is feeling about the show), I can tell you that I was surprised by how riveted I was.
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Though most of the events of the show have played out on the brothers’ social media pages (or in the case of Jake’s fight against Mike Tyson, streamed on Netflix to 108 million people worldwide), Paul American found ways to add new depth to their already viral stories. Especially compelling were the scenes with their partners, model Nina Agdal, who gave birth to her first child with Logan in September, and Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam, who began dating Jake after he DM’d her on Instagram.
Paul American is a production of Andrew Fried’s Boardwalk Pictures, the company behind Chef’s Table, Cheer and Welcome to Wrexham. “Jake and Logan are formidable storytellers,” he tells me. “They know in a way that probably none of us could understand how their actions drive numbers. It’s not just a situation where we’re being documentary filmmakers and having Jake and Logan as the subjects off at an arm’s length. That would be wasting one of the greatest assets that we had here. We made this series with Jake and Logan as well as making it about them.”
In today’s Like & Subscribe, I bring you my exclusive in-depth conversation with Fried (condensed and edited for clarity) about how to work with two of the biggest creators in the world. Read on and he’ll tell you:
How Boardwalk nabbed the project and why it’s on Max instead of Netflix
How to build long-form storytelling on top of “that short-form dopamine hit” of creator content
How much control the Pauls (and their live-in videographers) had in telling their story
The surprise “hero” of the show
Fried’s “incredibly frustrating” conversations with the Pauls
Why the producers didn’t shy away from the bros’ pro-Trump politics