Good morning. Over the weekend, comedy creator Matt Rife revealed that he purchased Ed and Lorraine Warren’s real-life home and Occult Museum, as featured in The Conjuring.
The question now: How open are ghosts to crowd work?
Mark Rober and MrBeast Team Up for Clean Water
Mark Rober (left) and MrBeast (right) reveal the #TeamWater fundraiser to supply communities with solar-powered water filtration systems / #TeamWater
Mark Rober and Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson just embarked on their biggest fundraiser yet: raising $40 million to bring clean drinking water to 2 million people. In its first three days, #TeamWater has already raised $6.8 million.
How it works: In YouTube’s first-ever collaboration post, Rober and Donaldson announced the fundraiser and showcased a solar-powered water filtration system from nonprofit GivePower. An individual GivePower module can produce 70K liters (about the size of a backyard swimming pool) of clean water per day.
#TeamWater—along with its lead global partner WaterAid—hopes to raise enough money to implement these water filtration systems for some of the 2+ billion people struggling to access potable water.
WaterAid has provided over 29 million people globally with access to clean water, aiming to reach 400 million in the next decade.
Testing the waters: Donaldson and Rober have already begun helping communities in Kenya, Malawi, Colombia, Nepal, and the US by building wells and water storage systems.
“Me and Mark Rober know that we can’t raise $40 million on our own, which is why you’re going to see thousands of creators uploading videos [...] about #TeamWater,” Donaldson said in his announcement video. Cleo Abram, Fede, Zach King, and over 3,000 other creators have joined #TeamWater, pledging to post across platforms about the organization.
Looking ahead: If #TeamWater reaches its goal, it would be the largest fundraiser in YouTube history, topping Rober and Donaldson’s own records from 2019's #TeamTrees and 2021's #TeamSeas.
Is This the ‘Netflix of AI’ for Creators?
The UX for Showrunner, a platform for AI-generated TV content / Showrunner/Forbes
Wish you could change the ending of your favorite TV show? Game of Thrones fans, we’re looking at you. Tech startup Fable aims to make that possible with Showrunner, an Amazon-backed AI-generated TV platform billing itself as the “Netflix of AI.”
The details: Users can make animated shows, sets, and scenes and insert themselves into existing plotlines. For example, users can build a character and storyline in Exit Valley, Showrunner’s animated series that’s like Silicon Valley meets Family Guy.
Here’s what to know →
Showrunner makes money when users spend credits to build upon existing content. It will give users 40% of the revenue it makes when other users “remix” their work.
Showrunner plans to charge $10-40/month for “credits” to make content. It’s free to watch, but Showrunner will collect a monthly rate to participate.
Tech creators like Laura Mingail, Justine Moore, and Wes Roth have started sharing scenes they made in Exit Valley and tutorials for building characters. “This is a new form of entertainment,” Mingail said on X.
The tech builds upon Fable’s AI-generated South Park episodes, which went viral in 2023. One X user likened Showrunner to an “adult version of Roblox.”
“It’s not just going to be a way to make movies cheaper. Movies and TV shows are going to become playable,” Fable cofounder Edward Saatchi said in a video.
Would you use Showrunner to make your own TV show?
Sponsored by Spotter Studio
Prestongoes Spent Thousands on One YouTube Video. Here’s What Made It Less Risky.
Prestongoes is one of our favorite creators, and a few months ago he had a big decision to make. He was sitting on a 3-part series concept, his biggest investment ever. But one question held him back: Would the idea actually connect with his audience?
That's when he turned to Spotter Studio.
Spotter Studio connects directly to your YouTube channel to help you test and refine your packaging—before you film. It analyzes your top videos (and the top videos your audience watches) to recommend high-performing titles, thumbnails, and keywords.
By tapping into data from his own channel and audience, Preston was able to validate his idea before filming began. The tool generated a mock title and thumbnail that gave him exactly what he needed: confidence to go all in.
The bet paid off. The series pulled in over 6.5 million views.
🎬 If you’re going big on your next project, do what Preston did—make sure the packaging lands before making the investment.
Test your ideas with a free trial of Spotter Studio.
— Colin & Samir
Bobbi Althoff Ends Podcast
Bobbi Althoff hosts a "funeral" for the end of "The Really Good Podcast" / Bobbi Althoff
After a meteoric rise in 2023, comedy creator Bobbi Althoff announced last week that she’s ending her interview show, The Really Good Podcast.
Catch up: Just four episodes into The Really Good Podcast, Althoff went viral for her (now deleted) Drake episode, which gained 1 billion views.
Over the show’s 2.5-year, 58-episode run, Althoff gained over 9 million followers across platforms.
But attention hasn’t been steady. Althoff’s YouTube videos went from averaging 5 million views per episode to ~300K views in the last year.
Despite an overall decline in viewership, Althoff won an iHeart podcast award for Best Emerging Podcast last year and signed an exclusive distribution deal with media company Studio71.
“I didn’t know I’d fall off as quickly as I did,” Althoff said in the farewell video. “I did think this was going to last a bit longer.”
As for what’s next? Althoff is reportedly working on a TV comedy series as a writer, producer, and star.
👀 Creator Moves
Night Media is hiring a brand advisory coordinator to help guide brand teams on creator marketing strategies.
MrBeast is looking for a remote social media marketing specialist to work on a six-month campaign for his toy line and animated series.
Basketball channel Lockdown K is hiring a motion graphics and VFX editor for its documentary-style long-form videos.
🔥 Press Worthy
LofiGirl graduates after studying for seven years.
Showrunner Cheyenne Ewulu is premiering her newest scripted series, The Comic Shop, exclusively on YouTube August 29.
Elon Musk says X is working to recover all archived Vine posts.
Comedy creator Brennan Lee Mulligan signs a three-year deal with Dropout.
Good Good Golf releases a line of sunglasses with Shady Rays.
TikTok creators Adam Rose and Leah Kirkup are starring in an R-rated comedy.
