It was amazing to have Oliver on the show this week!

Oliver and I met about a month ago over X and quickly connected around building educational content for the social media age. Oliver has been killing it in the Youtube space and has been featured in Forbes and Business Insider.

Now to the show:

While critics haven’t been big fans of Beast Games, (Mr. Beast’s unscripted game show on Amazon Prime) the numbers speak for themselves.

50 million viewers in the first 25 days. That’ll make executives happy.

However, what comes next is the fascinating part. Even before the release of Beast Games, streaming services had been searching for influencer led content. Big creators have their own IP/brand, as well as built in distribution, which allows them to distribute content to mass audiences at a massive and cheap rate.

With that being said, Mr. Beast is one of one. There are very few, if any, creators that can even sniff the influence and reach of Mr. Beast's platform. It’s probably too early to say whether the success of Beast Games is indicative of a broader convergence between the creator economy and traditional Hollywood or rather just a reflection of Mr. Beast’s huge platform.

HBO, which just announced “Paul American,” a new reality show focused on influencers Logan and Jake Paul, will be the next Hollywood streamer to throw their feet in the fire. We shall see!

Furthermore, after the impact that podcasts had on the 2024 election, especially the young male vote, it’s not surprising that creators will now be allowed into White House press briefings. Generally, I’m a fan of this. People, of all ages, now look to creators for their news. This announcement is merely a reflection of our new media landscape, where people listen to people, not brands.

During the show, Oliver voiced his concerns about creators quickly becoming politicized in the presence of power. I’d argue most creators are already heavily politicized. In our polarized political system, most people want to hear news from those they agree with. It’s a sad reality of modern day journalism, but it’s a reality.

Finally, Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, confirmed yesterday that the company had submitted a revised bid for TikTok, in which the U.S. government would have a 50% ownership position. And he decided to take it a step further on X.

What a time we are living in folks. That’s all for me this week.

We’re back next week with Ted Merz, the Former Head of News Product at Bloomberg.