Good morning. Summer may be over, but kids creator troupe Creek Crawlers is still going strong. They started the summer with the goal of hitting 10K followers in one week—and now they’re ending it with nearly 1M. They’ve raised $15K for St. Jude, launched merch, and inspired creators of all ages. Keep on crawlin’, kids.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

VFX creator Freddie Wong has boomeranged from YouTube to Hollywood and back again with the relaunch of his YouTube channel, RocketJump.

How he got here: 

But then: In 2018, Wong stopped uploading regularly to YouTube in favor of more traditional Hollywood work—he had an anthology series on Hulu, representation at WME, and pitches out to Netflix. But nothing lasted beyond a season.

So after 5+ years in the Hollywood system, Wong is back on YouTube.

Last year, Wong and Arnold self-released their film, We’re All Going To Die. They’re preparing to release another called Nail House.

What to expect going forward: Wong will continue with his long-running podcast, Dungeons and Daddies, and upload to RocketJump’s YouTube “whenever I want.” 

What fans and creators are saying: “No way…the world is healing,” reads one comment on Wong’s return announcement with over 11K likes.

Lifestyle creator Carter Kench is doubling down on the ensemble cast and gameplay of his popular Mafia series with his biggest show yet, a three-part haunted house series called Carter’s Carnival. The YouTube reality series premiering next month will feature confession booths, multi-cam setups, and plenty of lessons learned from Kench’s previous projects.

We visited Kench on set to see how Carter’s Carnival is coming together→

Lesson 1: Establish proof of concept. Last year, Kench hosted a haunted house with creators that gained over 14 million views between short- and long-form videos. The haunted house’s success allowed Kench to increase his budget and monetization goals for Carter’s Carnival.

Lesson 2: Build off long-term partnerships. Kench had previously worked with Squishmallows and Starry, making it easier to sell them on a new concept.

“It felt organic for the brands and for Carter to bring them into this bigger, high-fidelity world and that his audience can see continued brand integration across formats,” Allie Kench, Carter’s lead producer and sister, told us.

Looking ahead: As more of Carter’s audience watches both his short- and long-form videos on televisions, he wants to explore more shows on YouTube. 

“One of my biggest inspirations is Tim Burton and how he’s able to create all these worlds and it’s inspired me to dream big when it comes to these projects,” Carter said. “I try to always leave the door open for future sequels and expansions.”

Following the assasination of conservative political figure Charlie Kirk, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has called for the CEOs of Discord, Twitch, Steam, and Reddit to testify next month about radicalization via online forums.

“Congress has a duty to oversee the online platforms that radicals have used to advance political violence,”  Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement. “The CEOs [...] must appear before the Oversight Committee and explain what actions they will take to ensure their platforms are not exploited for nefarious purposes.”

Big picture: Creators and the platforms they use have become increasingly involved in Washington in the last year, from the Creator Caucus to tech leaders endorsing presidential candidates.

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