Good morning. Hidden Valley is hiring “Ranch-bassadors” to create content in Europe this summer as part of an eight-week salaried content program.

So if we go dark in a couple months, you’ll know where to find us.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

In today’s issue:

1) Why a celeb traded streaming for YouTube
2) One VFX creator solves post-production’s most tedious issue
3) Roblox invests in creator developers

While creators across genres are taking their YouTube shows to Netflix, multi-hyphenate writer, actor, and producer Phil Rosenthal is doing the opposite— taking his Netflix-exclusive show Somebody Feed Phil to YouTube in 2027.

Behind the decision: Rosenthal, most known for creating Everybody Loves Raymond, is partnering with French production company Banijay to adapt the Netflix show to a new platform and reach a wider audience. Banijay has also partnered with creators to revive popular competition formats like Minute to Win It for YouTube. 

“One of the things I always loved about ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ was that it was free to watch everywhere,” Rosenthal told Deadline. “We are thrilled to announce that ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ will move to YouTube, where our message of family, friendship, food, travel and laughs can reach the most people.”

The first eight seasons of Somebody Feed Phil will remain on Netflix, but all new episodes will premiere on YouTube, along with short-form content.

Zoom out: As Hollywood and the creator economy operate in the same entertainment system (a theme we’re exploring at our upcoming summit, Press Publish LA), we have seen a slow trickle of traditional shows and events embracing the creator mindset. For example, Amy Poehler’s Golden Globes podcast win or YouTube’s acquisition of the Academy Awards’ broadcast rights. Could Rosenthal’s move signal more talent moving off streaming platforms?

This week Corridor Crew co-founder Niko Pueringer released a green screen tool, CorridorKey, that could save VFX creators hours in the edit. Plus? It’s free.

Catch up quick: Most editing programs have a “rotoscoping” function—a tool that cuts out objects frame-by-frame, allowing VFX artists to replace the background. Artists may also use “chroma keying” to remove solid colored backgrounds (like green screens) from the video subject in the foreground. 

The problem: “We’re still using the same tools that I used when I was in high school,” Pueringer said. “It should be better by now.”

Most automatic keying and rotoscoping tools have a hard time cutting around heavy motion blur, transparent materials, or hair—leaving creators to manually adjust green screen footage. 

Pueringer wanted to build an AI rotoscoping tool that would operate on the “professional level of quality” needed for Corridor Crew’s upcoming season of Son of a Dungeon. 

The solution: Pueringer trained an AI model to scan for the problem areas on green screen footage that other rotoscope tools couldn’t—then uploaded the program to a hosting platform for free download. 

What users are saying:

Roblox paid out $1.5 billion to developers last year, with game creators as young as 19 making up to $4 million per year on the platform. 

Now Roblox wants to create more earners with two new developer programs, Incubator and Jumpstart. The former is a six-month intensive to scale existing dev teams, while Jumpstart is an ongoing program for individual creators new to the platform or developing their first game. 

Worth noting: Roblox has faced criticism from American and Australian governments for failing to protect minors from predatory behavior. Minors currently make up a large portion of the platform’s demographic (over 70%, among those who completed the platform’s age check). 

With the mentorship programs, Roblox says it’s aiming to reach an older demographic, reporting that players in the 18-34 range grew over 50% in the last year.

Are you a creator manager or agent? We want to hear from you.

We’re running an anonymous survey on what you’re seeing right now in creator brand deals. It only takes five minutes to fill out.

We look forward to reading your responses, and feel free to hit reply to this email with any questions.