Good morning. We’re constantly talking about unique ways for creators to use AI, but YouTube creator TD Bricks took it to the next level. His latest video, which just hit No. 2 on YouTube’s Trending charts, featured him using ChatGPT to design several LEGO sets step-by-step. Maybe the robots aren’t taking over just yet: The results were, well, mixed.

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

Home Design Creator Gets Her Own TV Show

Photographer and interior design creator Gray Benko is debuting her first TV show, Happy to Be Home with the Benkos, this Sunday. The home renovation show will be available both on cable via Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network and on streaming via HBO Max and Discovery+.

Context: Benko’s main platform is Instagram, where she shares a glimpse inside home interiors to 70,000+ followers. Launching her TV show will be the first time Benko works in video production and takes her interior design hobby to a professional level.

So how did Benko get a show on a celebrity-led network? She found her niche. We sat down with Benko this week to hear her backstory:

• Benko and her young daughter were featured on The Today Show in 2019 to talk about their popular shared makeup account, Farris Does Faces.

• Following that appearance, an HBO producer approached Benko and her daughter about starting a show, but those plans fell through.

• Meanwhile, Benko’s daughter was ready to call it quits on the joint account. So Benko pivoted her personal content to a new niche—photos of her home—and HBO producers (who’d kept tabs on Benko) suggested that as the topic for her new show.

“Because I don’t have any classic training in design and I did it all on my own, I feel like that shows that really anybody can learn how to do what I’m doing,” Benko told us. “I feel like if I can do this anybody can do this and hopefully there’s something relatable in that.”

Big picture: Creators like Benko are specialists focused heavily on their niche. Even within the interior design category, Benko’s content stands out from a sea of pale beige and open concepts with bright colors and unique layouts.

It's Benko's focus on a specific niche, not the size of her audience, that got the attention of Magnolia and HBO/Discovery.

Twitch Announcement Faces Swift Backlash From Creators

This week, Twitch announced that it’s conducting several experiments that would see it take a cut from matching streamers and brands for sponsored streams—angering top streamers who already secure their own brand partnerships (and keep 100% of the revenue) themselves.

What they’re saying: 

• Gaming streamer Karl Jacobs wrote that Twitch’s “manipulative Band-Aid solution” wouldn’t make the platform profitable and that Twitch should focus on retaining market share instead of “finding ways to exploit your creators.”

• Another gaming streamer, Lauren “bearki” Craighead, asked of Twitch: “Could you start testing a way to stop taking half of my income instead?”

Big picture: Last September, Twitch began to roll back its premium 70/30 subscription revenue split for select streamers, an unpopular move that kicked off a wave of highly criticized Twitch policy changes over the last several months.

This new announcement comes as competing platforms like Kick are wooing streamers away from Twitch by offering higher (albeit more controversial) payouts.

Nebula Sells Lifetime Membership for Limited Time

Creator-owned streaming platform Nebula—which hosts premium content from creators like Wendover Productions and LegalEagle—is experimenting with a new strategy for raising capital: selling lifetime memberships for a limited time.

Why? Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus said the company aims to produce bigger original projects but doesn’t want to give up equity or take on traditional venture capital.

So why ask for money upfront instead of higher-rate monthly subscriptions? “We can do more with $50 of today money than we can with $60 of next year money,” Wiskus said.

FYI: Some Nebula fans have expressed their preference for an annual subscription over the lifetime setup.

🔥 Press Worthy

• St. André Golf collaborates with Tiger Woods.

• Danny Gevirtz releases the trailer for his new movie.

• Ryan Trahan and BenofTheWeek talk about their favorite creators.

• Rainbolt successfully recruited fans to help with research.

• TommyInnit is going on tour in the U.K.

• She’s a wedding photographer turned YouTuber. Here’s a deeper look at Taylor Pendleton’s creator journey.*

*This is sponsored advertising content.

📚 Thank You For Pressing Publish

The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.

• A marketing professor at Chapman University promised to cancel the final exam for his students if one of them could make a video that got 1 million views. Want to guess what happened a few days later?

• Multihyphenate Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) emerges for a rare profile piece in GQ, going deep on his next projects and a new production company that he describes as the “Erewhon for culture.”

• Challenge creator L.A. Beast "paints" a picture using the sun's rays over the course of seven hours. After 13 years on YouTube, the creator and professional competitive eater continues to execute low-budget stunts in a way few others can.

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