Good morning. Podcast producer Rachel Braun and former UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer are hosting 877 UNMPLYD, a live show for people looking for a job.

The show streams at 3pm ET on Tuesdays—for anyone who's tired of updating their LinkedIn in silence.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

After a hiatus in 2025, gaming creator Seán William "Jacksepticeye" McLoughlin is bringing back his annual charity livestream, Thankmas—this time, as a six-month long campaign.

Why it matters: One of the hardest skills for any creator running a charity campaign is knowing when to ask the audience to act. Thankmas 2026 tests something new: whether a fandom will give steadily across six months instead of in a single-day surge.

Inside the fundraiser: Between now and the official livestream on December 5, McLoughlin aims to raise $3M with Make-A-Wish—enough to grant wishes for 300 children fighting critical illnesses. The organization promised to match the first $500K. In the first two days, McLoughlin has raised over $70K.

How he got here:

Jacksepticeye’s upper hand: Gaming creators (and other genres of livestreamers) spend more time with their audience than other creators, according to Meredith Levine, fandom expert and VP of audience development at SuperBam. This direct line to their fans puts creators like McLoughlin in a better position for successful audience-driven campaigns.

“One of the benefits of fandom is community and participating in something that’s bigger than yourself,” Levine told us. “Gaming charity livestreams are good ways to do that because it’s active real-time participation around shared values from a community that might not always get to in a synchronous way.”

At Kai Cenat’s Streamer University, veteran streamer Ludwig took home the award for Best Professor after clips of his lessons went viral. Beyond the 90M+ views he received during the event, his class boiled down to one idea: being a successful streamer is being consistent.

Here’s how that showed up in Ludwig’s lessons →

You can’t always be the clip. Most streamers struggle to convert followers from short-form clips because “the expectation of the viewer is not met when they go to the long-form content,” Ludwig said. Streamers who consistently show up as themselves instead of performing for a 15-second clip are more likely to maintain longevity with their audiences.

Planned hours > spammed hours. Streams are only as good as the content that comes from it. Ludwig shared numbers from one of his best: a 6-hour stream made $5K on Twitch, but the six long-form YouTube videos cut from the VOD made $25K. 

“You’re able to get all this out of one stream if you just spend the time to plan out what you’re going to do,” Ludwig said.

If something works, do it again. Ludwig’s IRL event Streamer Games lost money year one, but its cultural impact earned goodwill with fans—so he did it again. The second year broke even, and this year it’s projected to profit. Beyond events, Ludwig said this mentality extends to video formats and styles.

Big picture: Over half of all 2025 Streamer University students saw low to no growth following last year’s event—many because they didn’t keep momentum in their content strategy. By sharing earnings and analytics, and experiences, Ludwig is giving other streamers a road map most creators have had to navigate alone.

Creators are winning Emmys, Golden Globes nominations, and now The Critics Choice Association is giving creators its own award show. FYI: The Critics Choice Association’s namesake awards honors film and TV shows, with recent winners including Timothée Chalamet and Paul Thomas Anderson.

In April 2027, the organization will host the Critics Choice Creator Awards, honoring digital content that spans podcasts, unscripted shows, and microdramas, with awards such as “creator of the year” and “best comedy creator.” Guests will include creators from Steven Bartlett to Grace Reiter, according to Variety. The org hasn’t disclosed where it will air.

Zoom out: Creators have no shortage of award shows—the Streamys, Webbys, and Streamer Awards all celebrate creators. The biggest difference with Critics Choice? Winners will be chosen by a committee of 500 critics, not fans.

How we see it: While this is a big stamp of institutional approval, comparable shows like the Emmys and Golden Globes have brought creators in to compete in their existing programs. So is a separate ceremony validation or a velvet rope? As more creators like Kane Parsons, Curry Barker, and Markiplier break into traditional film and TV, we’re interested to follow where the boundary lines fall. 

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