thank you. they def need cameramen, traveling IT, for the ghost files, etc, i get that, but the sets dont need recliners and their own retro TV sets , projectors, and fictional machines. that was all nice when it wasn't costing me 5.99 a month, but its not necessary
production quality? I would have said the flights and luxury spending should have been the first concern. Changes to production quality are last thing that takes a hit. Always be on the look out for creative ways to save on production but the quality of experience for the viewer must remain or improve to some degree or the savings will be moot.
I genuinely cannot comprehend how UA-camrs don’t understand that a lot of people watch long-form UA-cam content because they are sick of over produced TV content. We literally do not want more over-produced content or more streaming services.
as someone who STILL binge watches buzzfeed unsolved videos to this day, i have to say that it really saddens me to see how these guys have evolved. we never asked for these fancy production rooms and effects, we watched because of the relationship between ryan and shane. you guys could shoot a video inside a cardboard box and i wouldn't care because i’m here for the personality, not the special graphics
Artists always want to challenge themselves though, this is the problem when you make a living doing what you're passionate about in a capitalist society, balancing your "vision" with keeping spectators happy and making enough money. I agree the decision to abondon UA-cam and the way it was announced was stupid and insensitive but I don't begrudge them wanting to make higher production value vids if that's what they want.
@@ruaoneill9050 i’m all for them wanting to challenge themselves, but why at our expense you know? it kinda felt like they were saying, “we don’t have enough money to do what we want so instead of learning how to manage it responsibly, we’ll just make you pay to watch our content.” they were making it seem as if WE were the ones that demanded these higher production videos. at least that’s how i took it, but i do agree with your response
I'll pay for the relationship and enjoy it, you can watch for free a month late. I'll give Ryan and Shane 6 bucks a month while you pay 6 bucks a day at starbucks, bucko.
@@akachino03I’ve also been a fan since buzzfeed. I’ve been to the live shows, hell I’ve even gotten my husband so into the lore he insists I play Too Many Spirits on audio while we take road trips. But I was not about to contribute what could be a domino effect of every damn UA-camr deciding it’s time to start their own streaming service. It’s already bad enough having to pay for 20 different streaming services that have 100s of shows, why add another for just a single creator? It comes down to the principle of it. With the way they have it set up going forward I may actually purchase it. If they never fixed it I probably would have forgotten about watcher forever if you gave it enough time lol
yes, she doesn make as much content as before so thats probably what would happen, and they may have to do somethign on theside times are hard for everyone, and they dont own us completly free content though
@@iFoohjAt the absolute very least rich peoples' *businesses* can go through hard times, which isn't uncommon at all, especially not in times like these; it really does affect business. Already existing personal funds is not necessarily going to save it. With that being said, I don't know if that applies to this situation, I'm just saying. Like don't get me wrong, I'd much rather have money while I panic 😂
like holy shit some of the content she has made, like the fashion through the decade and mixing every cake flavour or candle or something type videos must have cost a shit ton, how are they free and content like too many spirits isn't
@@lesmore10LA272 they have a patreon that probably, roughly, makes 30k a month on the low end. That does not include the merch, AdSense or brand deals. that's 360k yearly... for patron alone. split that into 3...120k yearly salary for each of the 3 guys. even with Expenses, that's a salary most people would dream of. Chances are the patreon is the lowest pay bracket. If they can't manage their 25 employees with what they get from all the other sources they get paid, THEY are doing something wrong...I mean, you certinly don't hire more people you can't pay if not firing people is their reason for the pay wall. But, ya, they don't owe people free entertainment (which is how they got to where they are now) but then THEY arn't owed viwership. As someone whos never watched them, this is a bad business decision that really does scream 'I want more vacations and not want it to come out of my own pocket'.
what is most irritating about this is that the higher costing production is the cause of their financial issues AND makes their content somehow feel less genuine. I have been watching less overall even before this all happened.
They need to get in on the Hank Green model. He has a good balance of low enough budget sets that don't seem unprofessional, and paid perks that don't exclude free content. He's also fueled by pure ADHD, so maybe he's carrying that through sheer Hank chaos.
same here, honestly, I liked Puppet History and spirits for how low-budget and charming it was. Puppet history in the 1st n second seasons had a lot of fun chaos, and unique side characters, and was just a good time with a learning opportunity. Now it just seems a little redundant and bland. I honestly wasn't surprised that they haven't seen their reddit page, where so many people echo that same criticism.
@@dbz9393 mm here's the thing. Going entirely paid was an absolutely garbage thing to do. And this apology was mediocre at best. But honestly dude, there's way more important things to worry about in the world than whether or not I want to genuinely forgive them for this. So, I'm not surprised people are chill with this. I'm going to continue to watch their content because I enjoy it and it's a pretty good escape from said bigger worries in the world. Getting on a moral high ground about some dudes on UA-cam and whether or not their apology was "good enough" isn't in the spoons for me or anyone right now. They acknowledged it was shit, corrected it, and we can move on 🤷 warily. But we can move on nonetheless.
If you’re in a “financial crisis” after ad revenue, patreon, merch, live shows, and sponsors I think instead of making another paywall, you should spend some of that money that you have been using for fancy foods, on business classes instead. Then maybe you’d know how to responsibly and ethically run a company and your financial issues would be solved.
Please enlighten all of us on how you know any details about their financial situation? Do you have any numbers you’d like to share? Like the income of their employees maybe? Or how about their average production costs? Or do you have anything that shows that they are running their company unethically or irresponsibly? Because to me, it sounds like you’re blowing hot air out of your ass.
High production quality causes me to watch less. I prefer UA-cam to AVOID syndicated refined media. I liked the raw and genuine feeling the older videos had. Not sure how Watcher will do moving forward :(
I think it depends on the channel and personal taste. I prefer high-production quality, as I am a graphic designer. The poor use of fonts, graphics, and layout is off-putting to me. I often find videos that would benefit from just a cursory knowledge about graphic design. For example, a wall of text without any white space looks pretty ugly and is hard to read. Shorter text and bigger breaks between paragraphs is a simple fix to this problem. That being said, there are times when I'm in the mood for those raw and genuine videos that don't have all the bells and whistles. It's like when I want something home-cooked over a restaurant. However, homecooked does not mean low-quality. It's about the passion you put into your work. This can translate through production quality but also with better writing, deeper research, and so forth. UA-cam content is awkwardly sandwiched in the middle between high-production media and raw, genuine media. Sometimes, a UA-camr is able to transcend the limits of this platform to create a true work of art, like the Astartes fan animations. I do believe that high production quality is what separates art from content. It's not as if everything needs to be art, there's enough room for all sort of creators.
Ugh. I'm just so tired and done. Remember the blue and yellow text days? I miss the blue and yellow text days. The best thing to come out of Watcher being made has been Puppet History, and even that feels like you've let the heart sucked out of it with corporate schlock. You guys reading old creepypastas was better than Ghost Files at this point, cause at least it seemed like you liked each other and enjoyed yourselves. I've been holding out hope that all of you have been in a creative rut and just needed some time to find your way. No, you're so busy being bogged down with your incredibly bad business decisions that you don't have time to be fun creatives any longer. It's gonna be a slow, painful death for your company if you don't figure out how to right the ship. Hint: *Be the creatives your fans fell in love with.*
So? That's where they live. Should they sell their houses and move to a different city so that a bunch of strangers talking smack to them online can keep accessing their content for free?
@medukameguca8529 lol they're complaining about money despite already having a patron, and already have lucrative sponsors. As business owners they need to be in touch with how much people are willing to spend, and they're overstepping.
Honestly, I miss the low budget buzzfeed unsolved videos. They were charming and authentic. The production value on Ghost Files is amazing, but it detracts from the down-to-Earth feeling that made me love unsolved so much. I’d rather watch Ryan bringing a water pistol full of holy water to Goatman’s Bridge, and Shane then claiming the bridge as his own than watch a more conventional high production TV episode.
I agree. I think a lot of content creators ALWAYS forget how they all started and how they got their following in the first place. And it's always bc they are resonating to their audience. The production is not the main thing people loved them, it's the duo's personality and also how they deliver their story. They dont need multi million dollar set and stage, they can put more money and time into researching interesting stories and maybe do a mini series where they travel but honestly, people just want to watch THEM!
@@brieo.8478 wait, why would he be dropped? Maybe this is a joke, and I'm just not reading into it, and I'm sorry. But I liked watching him and am wondering.
@@emilygundel5524 he's the CEO and spends 1000s of dollars on meals for content, drives a Tesla, he's essentially tanked the company single handedly as he's told us $6 a month is able for anyone and everyone. We are angry because he's rich and so out of touch.
I understand why they thought he would be a good choice for CEO but he definitely failed if they can't afford to survive with how much money they are bringing in. They have quite a few income sources... I think he just needed to fund his obnoxious food show so he could feel relevant again. He would have done better traveling the country and trying out locally owned restaurants. I saw a few other food show ideas in their comment sections that would have been more budget friendly but apparently his tastes are on the bougie side.
imma be honest , yall doing the intro for the new platform was a mess. -you framed it as a quitting posting video -yall didn’t include how people with low incomes could watch -completely ignored your patreon supporters who have ALREADY BEEN PAYING YOU -and you failed to recognize you ENTIRE fanbase who you GIVING YOU THE MONEY on the platform i miss buzzfeed unsolved so much, we clearly didn’t follow you guys to the watcher for amazing quality. we followed over because of the chemistry you guys had as friends. remember when you had a black screen with words over it? what the hell happened man.
@@Emily-do2jyhe takes those things so personally. I'm sure he's prob toyed with resigning. I really hope he's seeing his therapist to process his feelings and knows these thing blow over. They just do.
@@Emily-do2jy he’s the one who addressed the money stuff too, to backtrack what HE said - the price that anyone and everyone can afford. It took an entire reckoning to get them to realize how out of touch that was? Not a good look for him
On the revival of Worth It: My take here is that Steven wanted to revive Worth It not just for his benefit, but that it was objectively a very popular show. I myself was a fan when it was still airing on Buzzfeed. However, what he doesnt get is that it was fun to watch them eat expensive food BECAUSE it was BUZZFEED'S money. We all found the humor in 3 employees eating $1000 ice cream sundaes and calling it "work". Now, however, they've left Buzzfeed. To revive Worth It, you'd need a lot of money. It was fun when the budget would come from a massive media company, but to demand it from your fans is just in extremely poor taste. It is also just a generally more expensive show, not just because of the price of the food, but because of the production value. Unlike our Ghoul Boys, food cinematography does require a bit more money to do properly. Also, you had to properly represent the restaurants you visited. I never came to Watcher for the food videos. Watcher fans were all here for Shane and Ryan, a duo format that never needed all those extra garnishes. If Steven wants to pursue his food videos, he should do it as a passion project independent of the company. It is so obvious from view counts alone that we are here for the two boys, and not him. He is bleeding money out of a company that never needed high production costs in the first placec all because he's trying to get Shane and Ryan fans to watch Steven content.
I never watched anything for Steven Lim, I watched Worth It for Andrew! But I’m not paying a subscription so the two of them can go Willy nilly spend people’s hard earned money on a show not many will watch
I don’t know how to run a company, but a CEO once said he took a pay cut to pay his employees fairly. Because he says his raise is doing less work while his employees are happy to get promotions and bonuses.
While I get what you mean, I definitely don't want to see what they were going through. There were some horrible and very personal comments being made (not just talking about feeling betrayed etc) 😢 I'm just glad they did at least listen to the feedback.
Okay, so most of us are coming from Buzzfeed to watch Ryan and Shanes ghost boy shows and Mystery files. I didnt come to watch some people go out and eat expensive food. I wanted the goul boys to go on adventures, to make fun of each other.
“nonono you don’t understand, it’s the YOUTOOOB LANDSCAPE that is economically unviable, it’s not our mismanagement of the company and slowly worse content!!!!”
They weren't struggling. That was a pretext to cover up their avaricious business practices. UA-cam was much better before all of these vultures came here. You can thank Google for monetizing the place. Creators my rump, Thomas Edison was a creator, not these guys. They're saying whatever they can to conciliate their customers, which are what their subscribers are to them.
Adam isn’t a host, he works bts, Steven is the boss but yes Andrew is a new host. If they wanted both Adam and Andrew, staff changes should have been made. 25 employees is absolutely insane for a small company/channel like this And it seems like they hired a lot of ex buzzfeed employees too which is bad, even the try guys team have a mixed staff, a few from buzzfeed & others not
I don't think it was about struggling to pay their staff, I think they had personal goals to make their shows bigger & better from their perspective as creators, & neglected to reflect on whether the audience demand matched that
did they make an ill-guided decision that will alienate their fanbase and send them into more financial trouble? yes. did the internet do its thing with being super super mean while also making valid points? yes. do I feel bad for the ghoul boys? a little. Do I feel bad for stephen and his 300$ matcha machine? not really, no. I just want to see them be goofballs and have fun instead of trying to break into some upper echelon of high quality TV that I didn't want to watch in the first place.
Honestly idc about all those fancy edits & stuff, do you remember how unsolved was? Half was a black screen with conversations & yall sitting in a room reading.. it was easy simple & way more enjoyable than all this extra editing, etc. We loved the simplicity of unsolved.
I have a suggestion. Maybe get Steven to do something actually interesting? Eating expensive food wasnt fun when buzzfeed was doing it, why did you think it would be fun when he did it? I think variety is for sure needed but as other people have said, Steven's whole thing is sometimes insulting and mostly boring. And its really weird to have even thought of this idea when a good portion of your content relies on fan submitted stuff. Like a GOOD amount of it. How are you going to make content if you alienate your fans? This apology even feels like you're half in it.
While it is hilarious that they had to pull together this video so quickly, I am acknowledging that it takes balls to come on and say "yeah we fucked up but here's how we're gonna fix it". Thank you guys for apologising for your insensitive comments and for making changes.
I personally think it's pathetic. I'm not a fan of theirs and have never watched a video of theirs, but I predicted that they would shoot a video like this one. People will do anything for money these days.
@@DumplingDoodle Thank you! Everyone's commending them for "taking accountability" and "listening to their community" but it was the backlash and promise of financial ruin that made them whip this up so fast. Their entire comment section was lit up, NO ONE thought this was a good idea. If they actually knew their community AT ALL, they wouldn't have even tried this venture in the first place
@@Zenigundam What is even coming out of your mouth? What else did you expect them to do? This was the best option they could have gone with after a mistake they made. I'm honestly so done with people like you talking bad as if you never made mistakes is your life. Imagine everyone hating on you when you made a mistake. Forgive and forget, if you can't do that then just move on and don't come here talking bad cuz what's the point even of doing that?
“It was so insensitive, we made concrete changes immediately, and we are very sorry we made this mistake in the first place” I’m a grudge holding jerk, but that was what we needed.
the funniest thing to me is that their patreon already existed at nearly the same price and we already got content early through it. this whole thing could've been avoided if they just upped the patreon price by one dollar, released ad-free content a month early rather than a day early, and advertised it more on their youtube channel. plus patreon has a comment section so the community would be more engaged and still get to discuss new episodes as they come out.
That’s one reason why I don’t love the idea of watching it on the streaming service. I don’t think there’s a comment section there and half the fun of Ghost Files is reading the comments and feeling like I’m watching it with the community.
I didn’t even know they had a Patreon? This seems redundant to have both. I don’t understand what the pull for a second paid platform is if they’re getting the same stuff.
@@aviewfromtheinterior If you think it got as far as a public goodbye without 2/3rds of the team, your clinically insane. They all wanted to do this, get over it.
I stayed off UA-cam altogether for a week after your last video, but still heard echoes of the impact your poor choices made on other sites. I have followed Ryan and Shane since BUN and was happy to watch and support you guys. Now I feel like any video I see after this on this channel will feel tainted by what you tried to do.
The low production quality was part of the charm. It made you seem more genuine. People might disagree with me but I loved Buzzfeed Unsolved WAY more than I did Ghost Files (Not to say I don't like Ghost Files, just that for me Buzzfeed Unsolved was WAY WAY more enjoyable somehow). Anyway, I am glad you understood your mistakes and corrected it. Also I don't care about Steven. I am only here for Shane and Ryan.
Please, for the love of god. You could just put Shane and Ryan in a room with a table and two folding chairs and people would watch the hell out of it. Seriously, we don’t need elaborate editing or sets. The unserious and poor quality of buzzfeed unsolved made it endearing!!!
Must get boring for them to do the same low quality videos for over a decade tho. They are not the same people they were 10 years ago, so of course the content they create is going to be different too.
You also need to look at it from their perspective, they may WANT to make higher quality stuff. Sure WE love even the low production stuff, but making the low production quality stuff may not be fulfilling to them anymore. Nobody wants to have a job that isn't fulfilling for themselves.
i def agree, people love just seeing them as people, but necessarily the production value. i think they were trying at least somewhat to make us and themselves proud in growing their content but overlooked the effects it may have. i do really think they just want, at least in part, to give us their best
I unsubbed when I heard the news, it was disappointing. This apology is not good either. They’re not actually “grateful for us”, they want to make more money.
@@werethless12probably thought it was good at first, but it should’ve been asked about through a community post at first. with the correcting part i gotta say it was the weekend…meaning they’re probably with their family.
Ppl need to learn the difference between a mistake and a calculated decision. It's not that they didn't know what they were doing and were oblivious to it and made an oopsie, it's that they thought they could get away with sucking our pockets dry and we proved them wrong which forced them to backtrack. Don't be naive.
This is definitely an improvement, but please keep in mind that we're totally okay with downscaled production and less expensive shows. If you're not making enough money to fund your productions with a patreon, youtube ads, merch, and now a streaming service, then it's not a question of how to make more money, but of how to spend less. Because no one watches you for the fancy effects and intros, we watch because we like you guys. Regardless, best of luck.
I think they clearly want the big production to keep it fulfilling to them. I think finding a way to compromise what they want to make with what’s sustainable for fans like they’ve done here makes the most sense going forward.
I think it’s more about that THEY want high production, they want to make polished well produced shows, as they’ve been saying, but yea, I feel like they could maybe work on getting more bang for their buck
I know, they fudged up and they backtracked inmediately. But somehow it feels tainted, almost as if this one mistake puts this cover of darkness over anything they produce in the near future. Is anyone feeling this way?
What "dark cloud"? Lmao they tried to do what has been done by plemty, go to a subscription based model for their content. Their fans got upset and so they decided they'll still release their stuff on UA-cam but it will just be a month delayed, so those who really want their content can enjoy it early on their service for a fee. So if trying to adjust and make changes to satisfy your fans which as a entertainer is your market is "dark" then yeah I guess there's a dark cloud.
I want to see Steven work a few food drives for the underprivileged. That would be good content for Watcher. Show him how hard life really is for some of us. Look out, Steven. Poverty can come at you real fast...
Have him make a series where he tries to live in poverty like in some communities. Try moving here in the Philippines and live with the poor, together with the increasing 48-50 degree-Celsius temperature. That should give him the insight of whether eating gold-plated shit is still a good idea.
Exactly this. I think they care more about the production because it’s something they enjoy doing but as a viewer, I really couldn’t care less about it. My favorite series are Shane in Ryan sitting in a room or around a camp fire reading stories. Or them walking around a supposedly haunted place. I watch their videos because I like Ryan and Shane and their chemistry together and that’s it.
It's what they (or at least Ryan) clearly wants to make, though. Which is a shame, because he's built his career around youtube, a place for low-budget personality-driven content, not high production value. I could see Ryan leaving to do just that, follow what makes him happy, if he weren't now locked in to this WatcherTV thing, because it's clear the fan base (myself included) just aren't as interested in watching what he's interested in making. I love the low-budget content. I hope he can find a balance that makes him happy.
Well their personalities is obviously greed , is that what your here for , they just see u as a dollar sign and u so lonely u view UA-camrs as your friends hahahah losers
I can't speak for anyone else but all I ever wanted was Ryan and Shane goofing around whilst telling crime/spooky/history stories. I never wanted it to come to this😓
Y'all need to know we would watch Shane and Ryan walk through and ambiguously haunted vet clinic with two iphone cameras live streaming. We dont need the fancy stuff. My favourite videos are where its just those two reading stories/hanging out. Youve got two great personalities and a dynamic duo. No need to overpower it with a bunch of unnecessary expenses
Like they said..it’s their dream to be “tv show” producers. They think they are better than UA-cam but they can’t actually move off so they came up with this shit show
i really hope shane saw that one comment about how his past self would’ve told the fans to pirate it. he’s become what he sought to destroy (something something buzzfeed you get me)
As someone else in these comments said, it doesn’t “Take balls…” it is out of financial necessity. It was either take it back immediately or watch their cash flow dwindle. And fans like you are exactly why they knew they could get away with just an apology and a plan they should have done INITIALLY. They’ve got a bunch of sheep for fans Fr if this is the main thought coming out of this.
@@reececisneros1622 It's possible to recognize that they're doing this out of necessity for their business and yet still appreciate the apology and backtracking. Those things can coexist. I'm baffled by how so many people think there's no middle ground - either you're a sheep or a hater. Nuance is a thing that exists, folks.
I'm glad they apologized and came up with a compromise, but I still wish they'd realize they don't need such high budgets or a huge staff. Their amateur video days were their best.
I just hate all the hate Cr1tical, Jacksfilms, and their fans are giving them. Yes, they made a mistake that alienated their audience, but they're not greedy scumbags, and this apology doesn't feel fake in the slightest.
I cant describe how little I care about this apology. You didn't mess up, you made a conscious decision to tell your poorer fans to f*ck off, now you want us back, no thanks. At this point I don't think any apology can fix that. I've been a fan since your first years on Buzzfeed, before even Shane was on the shows. I fully supported your move to a new youtube channel and watched all your content. That goodbye video was a reel gut punch moment for me. One of those moments when you feel years of fandom get flushed down the drain. No apology can fix that. This was not a mistake, it was you showing who you really are. And i wont be supporting your future projects, i wont be rewatching old shows, its just been ruined to me.
1. You don't need 25 employees. 2. You don't need an office in Los Angeles. 3. Shop around for decent financial advisors bc you're clearly not getting your money's worth. 4. You could have easily gotten funds through a fundraising video/livestream event, rather than just expecting your fans to suddenly pay £60 a year to watch Steven eat gold covered steak, and have Shane and Ryan teach us obscure history facts. 5. Some of your best work on watcher took place over a split screen Zoom meeting during the pandemic, not with £100k+ sets.
They somehow still thinks that we as viewers really care about their expensive set or equipments... I just want to listen to my fav duo bantering back and forth about something stupid while i do my cleaning... This guy just forgot whats about them that made them so popular 🤦
The employees definitely aren’t the problem unless they’re making WAY above average. Smaller channels than this have managed to have a lot of employees, this channel makes a ton of money, they should be able to afford it. It’s probably all going to equipment and travel
@@annataymond9529sure but these are LA production/media salaries. He also mentioned paying them ‘fairly’ There’s no way in hell they can pay fairly in LA if they’re not giving out $60k to $100k+ salaries (times 25) Absolutely unnecessary and complete overkill for them
It's sad, I actually enjoyed watching them. I followed them from BuzzFeed bc I enjoyed their content. After their goodbye video, I was heartbroken, but then I realized that their r millions of other content creators I enjoy that didn't expect money 2 watch their videos. They can try 2 justify themselves, but if they were a single mother of multiple children, then maybe they would have thought more b4 demanding funding 2 sustain their lifestyles.
@@michellemitchell3640if they were single mothers of multiple children they’d be MORE justified in asking for more money lmao. If you’re saying YOU’RE a single mother of multiple children and can’t afford it, then, it’s not for you. But for 5.99 a month you’d have to be poorer than me to never afford that, and I’m an unemployed college student lmao.
About 12 years ago I got sick, when I found Buzzfeed Unsolved you were a bright spot in many dismal days. I’d often watch an episode twice. Once for Shane and Ryan and once to read community commentary. Your community was honestly as funny as you two. I was happily to see you guys grow and followed you to Watcher…. But it’s never felt the same. It’s overproduced and lacks the integrity of 2 friends being themselves hanging out. Today it feels over scripted and overproduced. I understand wanting a legacy of something to be proud of but your legacy honestly is the authenticity of the Buzzfeed days. I don’t know how you solve that as I understand people grow up, change and mature. However like others have mentioned hiring more employees to solve a money problem isn’t the answer. I understand wanting to be good employers but you may be better off scaling back especially with the economy the way it is. Honestly most people are cutting back on subscriptions to be able to afford food, gas and housing. It’s simply NOT the right time to make your followers foot your bills. If you want to hire someone I’d suggest hiring someone who will help you bring in more and better advertising and not on production and new on screen talent. Just thoughts to ponder It’s a tough time financially for many.
If we're being entirely honest, this is literally the stupidest suicide I've ever seen online. People have failed harder, but nobody has failed dumber.
Cutting sets doesn't pay bills. That's what people are missing in all this. Running a large channel on UA-cam if you don't directly have UA-cam's ear simply isn't sustainable. They can demonitize your entire channel, permanently, without resource, at any time. That kills the business. The only real solution that allows the business to keep growing, the people running it to live good, happy, prosperous lives and putting out good content is to move the revenue streams to another model.
@@frankdobs 1) Citation needed, and 2) running an entertainment business is expensive. The idea that hundreds of thousands of dollars is going into 3 guys' pockets is naive, to say the least.
They actually listened and I am so grateful for it. This model is more sustainable and accessible for the people. Damage has been done but accountability was taken.
They didn’t listen. They still want to overspend on their fancy office/studio etc. we all just now have to wait longer for unnecessary production values for no reason other than ego.
@@CertifiedForkLiftOperator69420 4 days, 25 staff and 3 mins does not make an apology any less meaningful - I don't know what your point is with bringing up these numbers as if they mean or say anything in this context.
Clueless. You were releasing bangers and could have built upon that. Now everything you do will be in question. Good luck. This is like when Jack in the Box made everyone sick and then they rebranded. Im sick and tired of people taking advantage of everyone for their "IT" factor. Figure yourselves out. I hope you read all 31k comments, you need it to fix your egos.
You know what’s budget friendly and way better than what you’re doing now? Going back to your roots, cutting the fancy out. All we want is Shane, Ryan, an implied ghost and a dumb ass spirit box.
Other people in the comments have made this point, I'll reiterate. I think I can understand why they want a bigger budget to try bigger things. As creative people they probably don't want to do the same thing over again (as much as we enjoy watching) think about ghost files and mystery files, in foundation they are the same as the BuzzFeed unsolved videos we watched, but done up and with more creativity, just as they envisioned. They probably have a million different creative ideas they want to try out so the bigger budget makes sense.
“Fancy stuff” is what it takes to get ad revenue on UA-cam or through any other platform. Ad revenue is also taking a lot of cuts from whoever is hosting the show (UA-cam notorious for demonetizing shows over anything remotely not ad-friendly). Ticket sales and merch sales is great but it also costs money to travel for shows, to make merch, etc. so they need ad revenue to make shows like Ghost Files, which is without a doubt one of the most expensive shows they make (travel expenses for ghoul boys + production crew, location filming rights, production and post production crew salaries, plus project managers to keep track of all the contracts, hotels, flights, and shooting schedules, etc.) No matter what people say, it’s going to be an expensive show and the only way to make a smaller budget for that is less episodes and less locations taking a 6-8 episode show and bringing it down to 2-3 a season and that’s STILL expensive to make.
My favorite videos from Watcher are still the pandemic “are you scared” vids where it’s just Ryan and Shane on zoom. Please don’t feel like you have to blow your budget on production when we just want to see y’all hang out and tell each other scary stories. I love you guys and felt like your shows gave me some much needed laughs during a difficult time. Thank you for hearing our concerns and actually making changes. It really means a lot.
same i love are you scared so much. it's just ryan telling his best friend spooky horror stories in a dark room but it's so enjoyable. the contrast of the horror of the story and their silly jokes works so well.
I'm glad y’all walked this back and apologized BUT the fact that you would have had to "bring Watcher to a close" without this streaming service... that just screams financial mismanagement. If your costs are that high with ALL of your income streams, then it's your job as a business to budget and downsize if needed, not to pass on the cost to your own fanbase in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
All ex-buzzfeed employees who start their own channel need to schedule a consultation with Safiya. Absolutely none of them have done it as well as she has, and her content isn’t behind a paywall.
Nah they need to talk to rhett and link. They have the right business model. They have the mythical society which has teirs, gives gifts quarterly, and special content and podcasts. And they still make gmm everyday and have the mythical kitchen channel. Plus rhett and link already helped smosh rebrand and become more successful when they bought it after Anthony left, so they have success stories.
Shocked they didn’t seem to have done a focus group in the first place, since there’s no way one representative of the fans would’ve suggested going ahead with the original model
@@saraknapp7909 Idk, social media and online content creation is still such a new branch of entertainment. Part of their appeal is that they arent part of a major broadcast company, their creativity and sincerity isnt stifled by executive oversight. But that also means they cant benefit from a major broadcast company's DECADES of experience from calculating trends to PR management. At the end of the day, Watcher is a team of young people, measuring the temp of the water with their hands and hoping their sincerity will carry them through. They're bound to make mistakes, but they're also willing to listen.
Guys, listen here. I love you and stuff, but you're supposed to be low budget Scooby Doo. I support competition to youtube, but I'm not paying for a separate membership to watch drunk Scooby Doo.
I've watched this a few times, and I never understood why it felt strange to me. We can tell it's a scripted apology, making sure they touch all points they want to make... but Shane and Ryan show emotion and remorse for what happened. Steven doesn't. His body language and verbal intonations while speaking are as if he's simply reading off the cue cards. He doesn't display any emotional nonverbal cues when Shane and Ryan are apologizing, but Steven does show emotional nonverbal cues when Shane or Ryan are explaining things. There's seemingly a disconnect with Steven, that he is not remorseful for how this has ostracized and damaged the trust of the fanbase and Watcher community. He doesn't display any type of remorseful or apologetic body language or gestures... Which is not normal for him and the content he's put out in the past. Shane and Ryan are far more authentic in this apology - and Steven is not. I know he's now the CEO, but if he is not able to keep this company afloat with all the money they're making - then better business decisions ought to be made than putting up a paywall and trashing the trust that was built over the years.
Dudes, I'm a teacher, so I know what it's like to have to or want to do a lot with very little, so I get why you made your choice. I've also been on the back side of eating crackers and ketchup packets for lunch because I only had enough money to put gas in my car to get to work so I understand why some folks found your comments about affordability crass and insensitive. I discovered you guys a couple of years ago and your content helped me survive completing a doctoral thesis and coursework while working two jobs. Watching your episodes after hours of writing was a reward I provided myself. That is why I immediately signed up for your subscription service; I felt like you were making this decision from a place of struggle and I wanted to help keep you guys around. Thanks for listening to your fanbase and I hope you can rise through this without much more fallout.
i understand wanting to improve production quality. i see nothing wrong with that at face value, however if that directly puts you at risk of s h u t i n g d o w n? that’s a skill issue and as a broke girlie even i know you’re probably working above your means. kudos for apologizing though 😅
And one of those was specifically to apologise for the "anyone can afford" comment, which I appreciate. Even if he was clearly reading off a script, but I imagine they wanted to be super careful with how they worded this so hey.
They would have kept more interest if he had stayed this way since the beginning. Scripts and production value went way down as his lines and pay have increased.
@@mommyyoungbloodthat seemed unnecessarily mean to me, as someone who only subscribed to watcher bc of Steven I can only hope he is “worth it” for the company but would be devastated if he stopped being on screen bc of this
This feels like... going out to dinner with someone you thought you knew well, and loved hanging out with, and watching them be the most pompous and condescending customer of the night to the overworked, teenage waiter. They notice your shock and horror, and you talk for two hours walking them through why treating someone poorly is - in fact - bad; that is cruel and apathetic, that someone's job being in customer service does not make them beneath you as a customer. It takes those two hours for them to *concede* that they were rude to someone who didn't deserve it. You do not correct them that it is not about deserving. The past two hours showed that they don't, and wont, understand that actions that warrant accountability, or even big reactions, does not equate with deserving cruelty. Correcting them that their actions were not undeservingly rude, but inhumane, would only make them get defensive, and the small step forward was too much work to take it back. They will not understand what it takes to make a clock tick, so you settle for teaching them how to tell the time. When you go home, you lay down in silence, and question everything you believed about your friend; every interaction, every characteristic, every word and feeling... everything. You question if your friendship was ever genuine, or based in some senseless social game. You wonder how you could know if your relationship born of interpersonal connection or strategy. You wonder if they actually like you, and how they would've treated you if you had a different social standing. You wonder if you truly want to know the answers to your questions. You stare into nothing so long that you don't know if you've even slept when light comes creeping through the window. You want to know if they know what gears are, and you don't know if you regret not teaching them about clockwork. You don't know if you will, you don't know if you even want to. You don't know if you even want to keep them as a friend anymore.
Oh, absolutely, steven lim is the CEO but isn’t in the middle, Shane is, and shane and ryan are doing most of the talking. people are mad at Steven bc they expect it from him but not shane and ryan.
"Hey gang, were gonna release our shows for our patrons first, like pretty much everyone else, but for at 5 dollar tier you get exclussive behind the scene footage and get to watch stevens new show." Why didn't you just do that first, instead of having to go back and do this after losing a bunch of followers?
You guys left the 1st place for mo money... now yous are somewhat independent its still not enough? With your back catalog, thats hard to beleive. Then the fact you guys do alot of sitting in the chair and the other one does the story reading... i cant understand how that format video is a high budget production. Please elaborate?
Just keep it simple, guys. We really don't care about "better" production value. I miss the days when it was just Ryan and Shane talking about mysteries and visiting spooky places. Thank you for at least considering the feedback you received.
Have you considered that no grown up man wants to be stuck doing the same stuff for over a decade? Its fine if we want the old content, those videos still exist, but they are different people now so of course they want to create different stuff.
Listen I’ve got nothing against yall personally, you clearly aren’t bad people but this has just left a lingering fart stench in the air that I fear won’t be dissipating. The plot has been lost here and I am personally not very interested in seeing it through. Best of luck to you fellas.
you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become 3 guys on a couch
They wouldn't have been the hero if they didn't apologize
Yo! Nice Sandlot reference ❤
3 guys 1 couch?
3 guys on a couch needs to be their next show.
omg this.
Step 1: Stop hiring friends.
Step 2: Hire a financial advisor.
Step 3: Stop spending money on production quality that you cannot afford.
exactly.
@@DARKINBLADE.that little room and table that buzzfeed unsolved started on was perfect imo
thank you. they def need cameramen, traveling IT, for the ghost files, etc, i get that, but the sets dont need recliners and their own retro TV sets , projectors, and fictional machines. that was all nice when it wasn't costing me 5.99 a month, but its not necessary
production quality? I would have said the flights and luxury spending should have been the first concern. Changes to production quality are last thing that takes a hit. Always be on the look out for creative ways to save on production but the quality of experience for the viewer must remain or improve to some degree or the savings will be moot.
@@maddsraddliterally step 2 could solve the entire issue
I genuinely cannot comprehend how UA-camrs don’t understand that a lot of people watch long-form UA-cam content because they are sick of over produced TV content. We literally do not want more over-produced content or more streaming services.
yeah, I have flicker rate neurologic problems and want no flashing graphics. Ideally none.
Yea I too like watching garbage
it seems like their goals are misaligned with their fanbase. they want to go into high production media and we're here for the goofs of shane and ryan
@@oscarr2480there is nothing wrong wanting to eat non-processed food
Greed can do that.
as someone who STILL binge watches buzzfeed unsolved videos to this day, i have to say that it really saddens me to see how these guys have evolved. we never asked for these fancy production rooms and effects, we watched because of the relationship between ryan and shane. you guys could shoot a video inside a cardboard box and i wouldn't care because i’m here for the personality, not the special graphics
Artists always want to challenge themselves though, this is the problem when you make a living doing what you're passionate about in a capitalist society, balancing your "vision" with keeping spectators happy and making enough money. I agree the decision to abondon UA-cam and the way it was announced was stupid and insensitive but I don't begrudge them wanting to make higher production value vids if that's what they want.
@@ruaoneill9050 i’m all for them wanting to challenge themselves, but why at our expense you know? it kinda felt like they were saying, “we don’t have enough money to do what we want so instead of learning how to manage it responsibly, we’ll just make you pay to watch our content.” they were making it seem as if WE were the ones that demanded these higher production videos. at least that’s how i took it, but i do agree with your response
EXACTLY
I'll pay for the relationship and enjoy it, you can watch for free a month late.
I'll give Ryan and Shane 6 bucks a month while you pay 6 bucks a day at starbucks, bucko.
@@Joedithas wow you showed them😂
I'd pay $5.99 to be a fly on the wall at the Watcher office these last 72 hours.
Man I been a fan since buzzfeed I never saw nothing wrong w the last video, real fans gon watch it😂
@@akachino03so I’m not a real fan if I’m not rich? If ur paying I’ll be a real fan ig.
if I had a penny for everytime I see a copy of this comment, I'd have a total of $5.99
😂😂😂
@@akachino03I’ve also been a fan since buzzfeed. I’ve been to the live shows, hell I’ve even gotten my husband so into the lore he insists I play Too Many Spirits on audio while we take road trips.
But I was not about to contribute what could be a domino effect of every damn UA-camr deciding it’s time to start their own streaming service. It’s already bad enough having to pay for 20 different streaming services that have 100s of shows, why add another for just a single creator?
It comes down to the principle of it. With the way they have it set up going forward I may actually purchase it. If they never fixed it I probably would have forgotten about watcher forever if you gave it enough time lol
Every time they say "production quality" I immediately think of Safiya Nygaard's content and how free it is
yes, she doesn make as much content as before so thats probably what would happen, and they may have to do somethign on theside times are hard for everyone, and they dont own us completly free content though
@@lesmore10LA272 ...you're saying they're going through a hard time? rich people are going through a hard time? oh lord...
@@iFoohjAt the absolute very least rich peoples' *businesses* can go through hard times, which isn't uncommon at all, especially not in times like these; it really does affect business.
Already existing personal funds is not necessarily going to save it.
With that being said, I don't know if that applies to this situation, I'm just saying. Like don't get me wrong, I'd much rather have money while I panic 😂
like holy shit some of the content she has made, like the fashion through the decade and mixing every cake flavour or candle or something type videos must have cost a shit ton, how are they free and content like too many spirits isn't
@@lesmore10LA272 they have a patreon that probably, roughly, makes 30k a month on the low end. That does not include the merch, AdSense or brand deals. that's 360k yearly... for patron alone. split that into 3...120k yearly salary for each of the 3 guys. even with Expenses, that's a salary most people would dream of. Chances are the patreon is the lowest pay bracket. If they can't manage their 25 employees with what they get from all the other sources they get paid, THEY are doing something wrong...I mean, you certinly don't hire more people you can't pay if not firing people is their reason for the pay wall.
But, ya, they don't owe people free entertainment (which is how they got to where they are now) but then THEY arn't owed viwership.
As someone whos never watched them, this is a bad business decision that really does scream 'I want more vacations and not want it to come out of my own pocket'.
If you can’t afford to pay your crew, either A) the crew is too big or B) it’s time for budget cuts. It’s not our problem.
Watcher: Pay our bills we did too much 😢
@@thecommentpolice YES. Run from businesses that say they're like a family. You are literally entering a contractual agreement 🙃
@@thecommentpolice perfectly explained!
B) is a cool dude with sunglasses
YES
Shane looks like he finally saw a ghost
😭😭😭😭😭
I am cackling 😂
This comment to the top IMMEDIATELY!😂😭
Banger comment
The ghost of his career for a second 😭
what is most irritating about this is that the higher costing production is the cause of their financial issues AND makes their content somehow feel less genuine. I have been watching less overall even before this all happened.
Same!
Same!
Same. I missed how simple it used to be. We don’t need this high budget stuff.
They need to get in on the Hank Green model. He has a good balance of low enough budget sets that don't seem unprofessional, and paid perks that don't exclude free content. He's also fueled by pure ADHD, so maybe he's carrying that through sheer Hank chaos.
same here, honestly, I liked Puppet History and spirits for how low-budget and charming it was. Puppet history in the 1st n second seasons had a lot of fun chaos, and unique side characters, and was just a good time with a learning opportunity. Now it just seems a little redundant and bland. I honestly wasn't surprised that they haven't seen their reddit page, where so many people echo that same criticism.
It's giving Ex that's crawling back after realizing they're not as big of a catch as the thought
Best analogy yet.
@@michael352Sailed it
So good 😂
We've failed to take into consideration the poors.
I am poors
That video was pure modern art.
My apartment complex switched to a online rent payment subscription system. It costs $15/m to pay my rent.
I spit at subscriptions now.
Those dastardly poors, ruining our plans once again
Watcher tried to sell meth outside Walmart
One day my feed will just be men saying sorry on sofas.
With tears I hope?
💀
Yes. And I will not be accepting the apologies because I'm tired. There's no lack of content out there.
@@dbz9393 mm here's the thing. Going entirely paid was an absolutely garbage thing to do. And this apology was mediocre at best. But honestly dude, there's way more important things to worry about in the world than whether or not I want to genuinely forgive them for this. So, I'm not surprised people are chill with this. I'm going to continue to watch their content because I enjoy it and it's a pretty good escape from said bigger worries in the world. Getting on a moral high ground about some dudes on UA-cam and whether or not their apology was "good enough" isn't in the spoons for me or anyone right now. They acknowledged it was shit, corrected it, and we can move on 🤷 warily. But we can move on nonetheless.
What a profound statement lol
If you’re in a “financial crisis” after ad revenue, patreon, merch, live shows, and sponsors I think instead of making another paywall, you should spend some of that money that you have been using for fancy foods, on business classes instead. Then maybe you’d know how to responsibly and ethically run a company and your financial issues would be solved.
Please enlighten all of us on how you know any details about their financial situation? Do you have any numbers you’d like to share? Like the income of their employees maybe? Or how about their average production costs?
Or do you have anything that shows that they are running their company unethically or irresponsibly?
Because to me, it sounds like you’re blowing hot air out of your ass.
@@mattdriscoll4102he indeed is
Maybe people should stop throwing a hissy fit
Or get advice from GMM. They manage to make it all work
@@mattdriscoll4102 Why are you defending them lmao
High production quality causes me to watch less. I prefer UA-cam to AVOID syndicated refined media. I liked the raw and genuine feeling the older videos had. Not sure how Watcher will do moving forward :(
I think it depends on the channel and personal taste. I prefer high-production quality, as I am a graphic designer. The poor use of fonts, graphics, and layout is off-putting to me.
I often find videos that would benefit from just a cursory knowledge about graphic design. For example, a wall of text without any white space looks pretty ugly and is hard to read. Shorter text and bigger breaks between paragraphs is a simple fix to this problem.
That being said, there are times when I'm in the mood for those raw and genuine videos that don't have all the bells and whistles. It's like when I want something home-cooked over a restaurant. However, homecooked does not mean low-quality. It's about the passion you put into your work. This can translate through production quality but also with better writing, deeper research, and so forth.
UA-cam content is awkwardly sandwiched in the middle between high-production media and raw, genuine media. Sometimes, a UA-camr is able to transcend the limits of this platform to create a true work of art, like the Astartes fan animations. I do believe that high production quality is what separates art from content. It's not as if everything needs to be art, there's enough room for all sort of creators.
That’s why I kinda quit watching Watcher… I miss the old school videos
if i had a nickel for every time i saw 3 ex-buzzfeed employees on a couch post-controversy, i'd have 2 nickels
which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice LMAO
😂😂😂😂😂
@@thetwilightzone4204 I mean, I'd rather it be this controversy than what happened to the try guys.. because that shit was messed up.
@@thetwilightzone4204I was going to post this quote! Lol
@evapunk333 that reminds me I haven't stalked ned in a while to see what shut he's up to now...
The ex-buzzfeed employee to three guys on the apology couch pipeline is insane 💀
It’s an open market
😂😂
2? Theres literally been 2. Hardly a pipeline. Maybe a leaking straw... But go on, be dramatic and flamboyant. Do you.
@@spoons250 my brother in Christ it was a joke, obviously hyperbole
@@spoons250if I had a nickel for everytime this happened..
The absolute crisis mode these guys must have been in over the weekend.
They look exhausted or like they have been crying.
“Good” - Buzzfeed Shane, probably.
I was just thinking the same thing!
@@cathyshook9993ryan looks like he saw a ghost
@@cathyshook9993 no they don't lmaooo
Ugh. I'm just so tired and done. Remember the blue and yellow text days? I miss the blue and yellow text days. The best thing to come out of Watcher being made has been Puppet History, and even that feels like you've let the heart sucked out of it with corporate schlock. You guys reading old creepypastas was better than Ghost Files at this point, cause at least it seemed like you liked each other and enjoyed yourselves. I've been holding out hope that all of you have been in a creative rut and just needed some time to find your way. No, you're so busy being bogged down with your incredibly bad business decisions that you don't have time to be fun creatives any longer. It's gonna be a slow, painful death for your company if you don't figure out how to right the ship.
Hint: *Be the creatives your fans fell in love with.*
ME TOOOOO
You guys literally have your office facing the Hollywood sign.......that's a you problem
So? That's where they live. Should they sell their houses and move to a different city so that a bunch of strangers talking smack to them online can keep accessing their content for free?
@medukameguca8529 lol they're complaining about money despite already having a patron, and already have lucrative sponsors. As business owners they need to be in touch with how much people are willing to spend, and they're overstepping.
@@medukameguca8529 There's a lot of space in the LA area that's far cheaper.
I would pay $1,000 to get the CCTV of the office over the weekend
oh my god can you even imagine
Be careful making offers, they'd probably take the money lmao
@@toml8273lmao. They ain't recovering any time soon
OMG the money is give for that, but I still won’t pay for the subscription
IM CRYING IM ACTUALLY WILLING TO PAY YO SEE THAT
Honestly, I miss the low budget buzzfeed unsolved videos. They were charming and authentic. The production value on Ghost Files is amazing, but it detracts from the down-to-Earth feeling that made me love unsolved so much. I’d rather watch Ryan bringing a water pistol full of holy water to Goatman’s Bridge, and Shane then claiming the bridge as his own than watch a more conventional high production TV episode.
I agree
I completely agree
Yep. Less was more.
I agree. I think a lot of content creators ALWAYS forget how they all started and how they got their following in the first place. And it's always bc they are resonating to their audience. The production is not the main thing people loved them, it's the duo's personality and also how they deliver their story. They dont need multi million dollar set and stage, they can put more money and time into researching interesting stories and maybe do a mini series where they travel but honestly, people just want to watch THEM!
@@crikeypie3750 True, if we wanted to watch tv we can just... watch tv
Probably the only good thing to come out of all this is everyone finally opening up about how less they care about Steven and his content.
He's %1000 getting dropped lol
@@brieo.8478 wait, why would he be dropped? Maybe this is a joke, and I'm just not reading into it, and I'm sorry. But I liked watching him and am wondering.
@@emilygundel5524 he's the CEO and spends 1000s of dollars on meals for content, drives a Tesla, he's essentially tanked the company single handedly as he's told us $6 a month is able for anyone and everyone. We are angry because he's rich and so out of touch.
Thank fuck, I found him really annoying most of the time.
I understand why they thought he would be a good choice for CEO but he definitely failed if they can't afford to survive with how much money they are bringing in. They have quite a few income sources... I think he just needed to fund his obnoxious food show so he could feel relevant again. He would have done better traveling the country and trying out locally owned restaurants. I saw a few other food show ideas in their comment sections that would have been more budget friendly but apparently his tastes are on the bougie side.
imma be honest , yall doing the intro for the new platform was a mess.
-you framed it as a quitting posting video
-yall didn’t include how people with low incomes could watch
-completely ignored your patreon supporters who have ALREADY BEEN PAYING YOU
-and you failed to recognize you ENTIRE fanbase who you GIVING YOU THE MONEY on the platform
i miss buzzfeed unsolved so much, we clearly didn’t follow you guys to the watcher for amazing quality. we followed over because of the chemistry you guys had as friends. remember when you had a black screen with words over it? what the hell happened man.
Shane finally saw a ghost, the ghost of his career.
Brutal, yet hilarious
💯
😳😂
😭😭
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
the comment reading party in that room must have been TENSE
I wonder how Steven felt considering everyone was blaming him 😭
@@Emily-do2jyimagine how he feels now, knowing that most of his own fandom does not like him 💀
@@Emily-do2jyhe takes those things so personally. I'm sure he's prob toyed with resigning. I really hope he's seeing his therapist to process his feelings and knows these thing blow over. They just do.
@@bornana269 Well, it's hilarious he'd even think the shane/ryan fandom cared for him.. like, why, since when? What for?
@@Emily-do2jy he’s the one who addressed the money stuff too, to backtrack what HE said - the price that anyone and everyone can afford. It took an entire reckoning to get them to realize how out of touch that was? Not a good look for him
On the revival of Worth It: My take here is that Steven wanted to revive Worth It not just for his benefit, but that it was objectively a very popular show. I myself was a fan when it was still airing on Buzzfeed.
However, what he doesnt get is that it was fun to watch them eat expensive food BECAUSE it was BUZZFEED'S money. We all found the humor in 3 employees eating $1000 ice cream sundaes and calling it "work". Now, however, they've left Buzzfeed. To revive Worth It, you'd need a lot of money. It was fun when the budget would come from a massive media company, but to demand it from your fans is just in extremely poor taste.
It is also just a generally more expensive show, not just because of the price of the food, but because of the production value. Unlike our Ghoul Boys, food cinematography does require a bit more money to do properly. Also, you had to properly represent the restaurants you visited.
I never came to Watcher for the food videos. Watcher fans were all here for Shane and Ryan, a duo format that never needed all those extra garnishes. If Steven wants to pursue his food videos, he should do it as a passion project independent of the company. It is so obvious from view counts alone that we are here for the two boys, and not him. He is bleeding money out of a company that never needed high production costs in the first placec all because he's trying to get Shane and Ryan fans to watch Steven content.
you’re spot on
Also i personally watched Worth It for Andrew.
fairly said
@@derp195 I think you missed the point
I never watched anything for Steven Lim, I watched Worth It for Andrew! But I’m not paying a subscription so the two of them can go Willy nilly spend people’s hard earned money on a show not many will watch
I don’t know how to run a company, but a CEO once said he took a pay cut to pay his employees fairly. Because he says his raise is doing less work while his employees are happy to get promotions and bonuses.
That’s the only correct way to run a business imo
I’d pay 5.99 right now to see their reaction and discussion to the backlash over the weekend lmaoo
Right 🤣
Same! That should have been their play!
6 dollars to just be a fly on the wall in the watcher office over the weekend
😂😂😂
While I get what you mean, I definitely don't want to see what they were going through. There were some horrible and very personal comments being made (not just talking about feeling betrayed etc) 😢 I'm just glad they did at least listen to the feedback.
This feels like when you were a kid at your friends house and then they get yelled at by their parents and then the vibe afterwards is weird.
too accurate lmao
They should have done the apology video in the Mystery Files basement for max effect.
you are so right.
LITERALLY LMAOO
HAHAHAHAHAHA this is too real
Okay, so most of us are coming from Buzzfeed to watch Ryan and Shanes ghost boy shows and Mystery files. I didnt come to watch some people go out and eat expensive food. I wanted the goul boys to go on adventures, to make fun of each other.
Same! I just want spooky and quirky Shane and Ryan! That’s it!!!
This still feels more corporate than actual apology
Because they are a company, not your personal friends. Your parasocial relationship with them is clouding your senses.
I'm no economist, but if you're struggling to pay your existing staff, I doubt hiring three new hosts is the way to resolve that issue.
ill make more money....by losing more money...AAHAHAHAHAHAHA GENIUS
“nonono you don’t understand, it’s the YOUTOOOB LANDSCAPE that is economically unviable, it’s not our mismanagement of the company and slowly worse content!!!!”
They weren't struggling. That was a pretext to cover up their avaricious business practices. UA-cam was much better before all of these vultures came here. You can thank Google for monetizing the place. Creators my rump, Thomas Edison was a creator, not these guys. They're saying whatever they can to conciliate their customers, which are what their subscribers are to them.
Adam isn’t a host, he works bts, Steven is the boss but yes Andrew is a new host.
If they wanted both Adam and Andrew, staff changes should have been made. 25 employees is absolutely insane for a small company/channel like this
And it seems like they hired a lot of ex buzzfeed employees too which is bad, even the try guys team have a mixed staff, a few from buzzfeed & others not
I don't think it was about struggling to pay their staff, I think they had personal goals to make their shows bigger & better from their perspective as creators, & neglected to reflect on whether the audience demand matched that
You can smell how hard they’ve been sweating over the damage control.
They didn't sigh so that's a plus
I can only imagine how Ryan & Shanes butts sweating, tightening and relaxing with every sentence they say 😂
@@melindapatacsil6907 That's so fucking hot. 😫💦
I have no idea who these guys are but the drama is worth following 🤓
@@eglantinepapeau1582 It's two lesbians and a trans-man. Please be respectful.
did they make an ill-guided decision that will alienate their fanbase and send them into more financial trouble? yes. did the internet do its thing with being super super mean while also making valid points? yes. do I feel bad for the ghoul boys? a little. Do I feel bad for stephen and his 300$ matcha machine? not really, no.
I just want to see them be goofballs and have fun instead of trying to break into some upper echelon of high quality TV that I didn't want to watch in the first place.
Very well said.
Honestly idc about all those fancy edits & stuff, do you remember how unsolved was? Half was a black screen with conversations & yall sitting in a room reading.. it was easy simple & way more enjoyable than all this extra editing, etc. We loved the simplicity of unsolved.
The edits and cuts make it seem so fake… I want old Buzzfeed and old Shane!!!! Where’s our hero Shane when we need him the most! 😭
3 guys on a couch always means shit went down
Bruh I nearly died reading this 😂😂
3 guys 1 couch
FACT 😂
Guys is a stretch
No comment accurately captures content creation in the 21st century like this comment. Well done!
Just please remember the audience is here for you guys and not the "high budget production"
this!! honestly i just want them making content and being themselves, it doesn’t need all the extra flair and production
The Observe video made this exact... well, observation lol
This is very important I hope they see it
So true! also we know that is code for steven cooking with 24k gold flakes
@@kookoochim they need money to pay their life expenses girlie use ur brain ❤
🎶3 dudes, sitting on a couch, 1 foot apart cause someone messed up 🎶
I have a suggestion. Maybe get Steven to do something actually interesting? Eating expensive food wasnt fun when buzzfeed was doing it, why did you think it would be fun when he did it?
I think variety is for sure needed but as other people have said, Steven's whole thing is sometimes insulting and mostly boring.
And its really weird to have even thought of this idea when a good portion of your content relies on fan submitted stuff. Like a GOOD amount of it. How are you going to make content if you alienate your fans?
This apology even feels like you're half in it.
Like mystery foods, or disgusting foods, spicy food challenges are always fun! But expensive I could give two s***s about!
Worth It actually used to do pretty well when it was on BUZZFEEDS MONEY. Couldn’t actually give a damn about it though
While it is hilarious that they had to pull together this video so quickly, I am acknowledging that it takes balls to come on and say "yeah we fucked up but here's how we're gonna fix it". Thank you guys for apologising for your insensitive comments and for making changes.
Exactly :)
It’s not balls, it’s financial necessity. They would have TANKED if they went through with their original plan.
I personally think it's pathetic. I'm not a fan of theirs and have never watched a video of theirs, but I predicted that they would shoot a video like this one. People will do anything for money these days.
@@DumplingDoodle Thank you! Everyone's commending them for "taking accountability" and "listening to their community" but it was the backlash and promise of financial ruin that made them whip this up so fast. Their entire comment section was lit up, NO ONE thought this was a good idea. If they actually knew their community AT ALL, they wouldn't have even tried this venture in the first place
@@Zenigundam What is even coming out of your mouth? What else did you expect them to do? This was the best option they could have gone with after a mistake they made. I'm honestly so done with people like you talking bad as if you never made mistakes is your life. Imagine everyone hating on you when you made a mistake. Forgive and forget, if you can't do that then just move on and don't come here talking bad cuz what's the point even of doing that?
“It was so insensitive, we made concrete changes immediately, and we are very sorry we made this mistake in the first place” I’m a grudge holding jerk, but that was what we needed.
Same. I’m still a lil hurt but I won’t jump ship just yet.
Pretty good apology video
Okay let’s calm down. They messed up but it’s business not personal
@@yung1717 lmao right? The vocal minority getting butthurt over parasocial entitlement in these comments
They must not understand their fan base as soon as I saw it I ran to the comments @@yung1717
You can take the people out of BuzzFeed but you can’t take the BuzzFeed out of the people.
I think we all learned a lot about the disposable income of adults who like puppet shows.
the funniest thing to me is that their patreon already existed at nearly the same price and we already got content early through it. this whole thing could've been avoided if they just upped the patreon price by one dollar, released ad-free content a month early rather than a day early, and advertised it more on their youtube channel. plus patreon has a comment section so the community would be more engaged and still get to discuss new episodes as they come out.
That’s one reason why I don’t love the idea of watching it on the streaming service. I don’t think there’s a comment section there and half the fun of Ghost Files is reading the comments and feeling like I’m watching it with the community.
I didn’t even know they had a Patreon? This seems redundant to have both. I don’t understand what the pull for a second paid platform is if they’re getting the same stuff.
My farts are better than Watcher’s farts 💨
I don’t understand how they did not think about this💀
this is what they would’ve done if they cared about their audience *more than* caring to to get their money lol
Shane looks more nervous in this video than he’s ever looked in a Ghost files video 😂😂
Is it just me, or was there a bit of a "I fucking told you so" smirk on his face a couple of times.
Ghoulss don't scare him, but fans do!!
HELP IKR
@@aviewfromtheinterior If you think it got as far as a public goodbye without 2/3rds of the team, your clinically insane. They all wanted to do this, get over it.
only time he's been more scared was that alarm in mission solano
I stayed off UA-cam altogether for a week after your last video, but still heard echoes of the impact your poor choices made on other sites. I have followed Ryan and Shane since BUN and was happy to watch and support you guys. Now I feel like any video I see after this on this channel will feel tainted by what you tried to do.
The low production quality was part of the charm. It made you seem more genuine. People might disagree with me but I loved Buzzfeed Unsolved WAY more than I did Ghost Files (Not to say I don't like Ghost Files, just that for me Buzzfeed Unsolved was WAY WAY more enjoyable somehow). Anyway, I am glad you understood your mistakes and corrected it.
Also I don't care about Steven. I am only here for Shane and Ryan.
i kind of agree idrk when steven was thrown in there ?
I don’t think anyone cares for Steven, I feel kinda bad…
I also feel like this was a Steven push…
Please, for the love of god. You could just put Shane and Ryan in a room with a table and two folding chairs and people would watch the hell out of it. Seriously, we don’t need elaborate editing or sets. The unserious and poor quality of buzzfeed unsolved made it endearing!!!
Honestly, I'd prefer it.
Must get boring for them to do the same low quality videos for over a decade tho. They are not the same people they were 10 years ago, so of course the content they create is going to be different too.
yes i 100% agree
You also need to look at it from their perspective, they may WANT to make higher quality stuff. Sure WE love even the low production stuff, but making the low production quality stuff may not be fulfilling to them anymore. Nobody wants to have a job that isn't fulfilling for themselves.
i def agree, people love just seeing them as people, but necessarily the production value. i think they were trying at least somewhat to make us and themselves proud in growing their content but overlooked the effects it may have. i do really think they just want, at least in part, to give us their best
y'all were at your peak when you were two guys running around with gopros and being yellow and blue subtitles on a screen
God I miss that
fr !!
i relly miss that
{wheeze}
they also could TOTALLY go back to doing that on Watcher I'm so confused why they didn't if that's the reason they became so popular
I unsubbed when I heard the news, it was disappointing. This apology is not good either. They’re not actually “grateful for us”, they want to make more money.
I need to unsubscribe for a bit. This was a weird experience as a long time fan.
Same here. Been here since like forever, now unsubbed.
I appreciate the fact they could recognize the mistake and fix it, but the 3 guys on a couch thing is just so damn funny.
The fact that they came up with the idea, recorded a video, edited it, and then waited 3 days to correct it says more than this video does.
Damage is already done imo. They’d drop us for more money at the drop of a hat
@@werethless12probably thought it was good at first, but it should’ve been asked about through a community post at first. with the correcting part i gotta say it was the weekend…meaning they’re probably with their family.
fr i thought demonic goatman cheated on his wife or something
Ppl need to learn the difference between a mistake and a calculated decision. It's not that they didn't know what they were doing and were oblivious to it and made an oopsie, it's that they thought they could get away with sucking our pockets dry and we proved them wrong which forced them to backtrack. Don't be naive.
This is definitely an improvement, but please keep in mind that we're totally okay with downscaled production and less expensive shows. If you're not making enough money to fund your productions with a patreon, youtube ads, merch, and now a streaming service, then it's not a question of how to make more money, but of how to spend less. Because no one watches you for the fancy effects and intros, we watch because we like you guys. Regardless, best of luck.
I think they clearly want the big production to keep it fulfilling to them. I think finding a way to compromise what they want to make with what’s sustainable for fans like they’ve done here makes the most sense going forward.
My farts are better than Watcher’s farts 💨
And nevermind that Steven is flaunting his wealth a lot... Pay yourself less
I think it’s more about that THEY want high production, they want to make polished well produced shows, as they’ve been saying, but yea, I feel like they could maybe work on getting more bang for their buck
Maybe they need to look at their 25 employees and make some cuts. Do they really need that many people?
I know, they fudged up and they backtracked inmediately. But somehow it feels tainted, almost as if this one mistake puts this cover of darkness over anything they produce in the near future. Is anyone feeling this way?
Hopefully no other people feels this way, because it sounds seriously insane.
What "dark cloud"? Lmao they tried to do what has been done by plemty, go to a subscription based model for their content. Their fans got upset and so they decided they'll still release their stuff on UA-cam but it will just be a month delayed, so those who really want their content can enjoy it early on their service for a fee.
So if trying to adjust and make changes to satisfy your fans which as a entertainer is your market is "dark" then yeah I guess there's a dark cloud.
I want to see Steven work a few food drives for the underprivileged. That would be good content for Watcher. Show him how hard life really is for some of us. Look out, Steven. Poverty can come at you real fast...
Have him make a series where he tries to live in poverty like in some communities. Try moving here in the Philippines and live with the poor, together with the increasing 48-50 degree-Celsius temperature. That should give him the insight of whether eating gold-plated shit is still a good idea.
This is all I want from him now. If that travel show gets released I'm done.
Creators sometimes seem to forget that we are here because of their personalities and charisma and not the high budget production.
I would be happy with Ryan and Shane using an iPhone to make content.
Exactly this. I think they care more about the production because it’s something they enjoy doing but as a viewer, I really couldn’t care less about it. My favorite series are Shane in Ryan sitting in a room or around a camp fire reading stories. Or them walking around a supposedly haunted place. I watch their videos because I like Ryan and Shane and their chemistry together and that’s it.
It's what they (or at least Ryan) clearly wants to make, though. Which is a shame, because he's built his career around youtube, a place for low-budget personality-driven content, not high production value. I could see Ryan leaving to do just that, follow what makes him happy, if he weren't now locked in to this WatcherTV thing, because it's clear the fan base (myself included) just aren't as interested in watching what he's interested in making. I love the low-budget content. I hope he can find a balance that makes him happy.
Well their personalities is obviously greed , is that what your here for , they just see u as a dollar sign and u so lonely u view UA-camrs as your friends hahahah losers
@@eazeprestige8853"hahahaha losers" -🤓
"we messed up" being the first thing they say is killing me 💀
that being said the change is such good news and a relief for all of us that couldn't afford the subscription
if i was drinking smth i would've spit it out ngl
ikr 😭😂
It's straight to the point not "copying every other apology" stfu
@@ShanDaSheep I can imagine they’ve needed a few actual drinky drinks to deal with all this backlash lol
I can't speak for anyone else but all I ever wanted was Ryan and Shane goofing around whilst telling crime/spooky/history stories. I never wanted it to come to this😓
y'all really fumbled with this, gonna take a lot to earn the communities trust back
Y'all need to know we would watch Shane and Ryan walk through and ambiguously haunted vet clinic with two iphone cameras live streaming. We dont need the fancy stuff.
My favourite videos are where its just those two reading stories/hanging out. Youve got two great personalities and a dynamic duo. No need to overpower it with a bunch of unnecessary expenses
I completely agree
Like they said..it’s their dream to be “tv show” producers. They think they are better than UA-cam but they can’t actually move off so they came up with this shit show
Agree 10000%
Omg I love their are you scared stories! I been hoping for a new season of it.
I might agree if there was correct grammar?
i really hope shane saw that one comment about how his past self would’ve told the fans to pirate it. he’s become what he sought to destroy (something something buzzfeed you get me)
this!!!!!
They need to stop even mentioning Buzzfeed
You mean that clickbait crap thats worse than Reddit? Not something to be proud of
@@Blakiedoo wtf does him being a straight white male have to do with this?
Also He's Jewish
Are we really ignoring when Shane told people to share the membership with their friends in the original announcement?
tbf he did say "you can share it with your friends, we don't care" lmaooo
I saw a comment saying that Not one Of Those 25 Employees Is A Financial Planner..😂
Steven doesnt really look sorry, he seems to be rehearsing a script someone wrote for him. it doesnt come from the heart at all lmao
I'll admit, it takes balls to receive this level of backlash and not crumble OR hide, but recognise the screw up and take it back.
No dont give them credit for doing the BARE minimum. Nobody forced them to make such a tone deaf decision
As someone else in these comments said, it doesn’t “Take balls…” it is out of financial necessity. It was either take it back immediately or watch their cash flow dwindle. And fans like you are exactly why they knew they could get away with just an apology and a plan they should have done INITIALLY. They’ve got a bunch of sheep for fans Fr if this is the main thought coming out of this.
@@reececisneros1622 It's possible to recognize that they're doing this out of necessity for their business and yet still appreciate the apology and backtracking. Those things can coexist. I'm baffled by how so many people think there's no middle ground - either you're a sheep or a hater. Nuance is a thing that exists, folks.
Subscribed
@@colonelcrackerz2320 So what? Erase what they said? What they said was wrong but better than a lot and people shouldn’t forgive them
I'm glad they apologized and came up with a compromise, but I still wish they'd realize they don't need such high budgets or a huge staff. Their amateur video days were their best.
Yeah, and it'll still take a while to earn back our trust.
I want to believe the whole thing was just a massive oversight and that they weren't driven by greed, but I'm not sure I can.
Sooooooo true
My farts are better than Watcher’s farts 💨
I just hate all the hate Cr1tical, Jacksfilms, and their fans are giving them. Yes, they made a mistake that alienated their audience, but they're not greedy scumbags, and this apology doesn't feel fake in the slightest.
I cant describe how little I care about this apology. You didn't mess up, you made a conscious decision to tell your poorer fans to f*ck off, now you want us back, no thanks. At this point I don't think any apology can fix that. I've been a fan since your first years on Buzzfeed, before even Shane was on the shows. I fully supported your move to a new youtube channel and watched all your content. That goodbye video was a reel gut punch moment for me. One of those moments when you feel years of fandom get flushed down the drain. No apology can fix that. This was not a mistake, it was you showing who you really are. And i wont be supporting your future projects, i wont be rewatching old shows, its just been ruined to me.
You love to hate.
So true! Well put together 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
No, just heartbroken @@edeliteedelite1961
1. You don't need 25 employees.
2. You don't need an office in Los Angeles.
3. Shop around for decent financial advisors bc you're clearly not getting your money's worth.
4. You could have easily gotten funds through a fundraising video/livestream event, rather than just expecting your fans to suddenly pay £60 a year to watch Steven eat gold covered steak, and have Shane and Ryan teach us obscure history facts.
5. Some of your best work on watcher took place over a split screen Zoom meeting during the pandemic, not with £100k+ sets.
They somehow still thinks that we as viewers really care about their expensive set or equipments... I just want to listen to my fav duo bantering back and forth about something stupid while i do my cleaning... This guy just forgot whats about them that made them so popular 🤦
With these types they HAVE to have the office in California tho. They don't see themselves as a success till they that make it to that hellhole.
The employees definitely aren’t the problem unless they’re making WAY above average. Smaller channels than this have managed to have a lot of employees, this channel makes a ton of money, they should be able to afford it. It’s probably all going to equipment and travel
6. they don't need your shitty advice
@@annataymond9529sure but these are LA production/media salaries. He also mentioned paying them ‘fairly’
There’s no way in hell they can pay fairly in LA if they’re not giving out $60k to $100k+ salaries (times 25)
Absolutely unnecessary and complete overkill for them
The phrase "I'm never going to financially recover from this" really hit home this time.
My farts are better than Watcher’s farts 💨
THISSSSS
It's sad, I actually enjoyed watching them. I followed them from BuzzFeed bc I enjoyed their content. After their goodbye video, I was heartbroken, but then I realized that their r millions of other content creators I enjoy that didn't expect money 2 watch their videos.
They can try 2 justify themselves, but if they were a single mother of multiple children, then maybe they would have thought more b4 demanding funding 2 sustain their lifestyles.
They are also never going to reputation-ally from this one 🙊
@@michellemitchell3640if they were single mothers of multiple children they’d be MORE justified in asking for more money lmao. If you’re saying YOU’RE a single mother of multiple children and can’t afford it, then, it’s not for you. But for 5.99 a month you’d have to be poorer than me to never afford that, and I’m an unemployed college student lmao.
About 12 years ago I got sick, when I found Buzzfeed Unsolved you were a bright spot in many dismal days. I’d often watch an episode twice. Once for Shane and Ryan and once to read community commentary. Your community was honestly as funny as you two.
I was happily to see you guys grow and followed you to Watcher…. But it’s never felt the same. It’s overproduced and lacks the integrity of 2 friends being themselves hanging out. Today it feels over scripted and overproduced.
I understand wanting a legacy of something to be proud of but your legacy honestly is the authenticity of the Buzzfeed days. I don’t know how you solve that as I understand people grow up, change and mature. However like others have mentioned hiring more employees to solve a money problem isn’t the answer. I understand wanting to be good employers but you may be better off scaling back especially with the economy the way it is.
Honestly most people are cutting back on subscriptions to be able to afford food, gas and housing. It’s simply NOT the right time to make your followers foot your bills. If you want to hire someone I’d suggest hiring someone who will help you bring in more and better advertising and not on production and new on screen talent. Just thoughts to ponder
It’s a tough time financially for many.
If we're being entirely honest, this is literally the stupidest suicide I've ever seen online.
People have failed harder, but nobody has failed dumber.
We would have no problem with a production budget cut, lads. We're here for you guys, not the fun sets
Cutting sets doesn't pay bills. That's what people are missing in all this. Running a large channel on UA-cam if you don't directly have UA-cam's ear simply isn't sustainable. They can demonitize your entire channel, permanently, without resource, at any time. That kills the business. The only real solution that allows the business to keep growing, the people running it to live good, happy, prosperous lives and putting out good content is to move the revenue streams to another model.
BUT WE'RE NOT HERE FOR STEVEN!
@@swalsh76 they make hundreds of thousands some months what you going on about
i literally dont like ghost files because it felt too gimmicky
@@frankdobs 1) Citation needed, and 2) running an entertainment business is expensive. The idea that hundreds of thousands of dollars is going into 3 guys' pockets is naive, to say the least.
They actually listened and I am so grateful for it. This model is more sustainable and accessible for the people. Damage has been done but accountability was taken.
Was it though 🤨 4 days, 25 staff and 3min apology video. Yeah accountability was taketh in
@@CertifiedForkLiftOperator69420 literally i cannot believe people are buying into this. suckers
They didn’t listen. They still want to overspend on their fancy office/studio etc. we all just now have to wait longer for unnecessary production values for no reason other than ego.
I was afraid people would accuse them of backtracking? But you are right. They listened to their people and I hope it’s successful.
@@CertifiedForkLiftOperator69420 4 days, 25 staff and 3 mins does not make an apology any less meaningful - I don't know what your point is with bringing up these numbers as if they mean or say anything in this context.
I miss the old crime shows. Tons of small town unsolved crimes.
Clueless. You were releasing bangers and could have built upon that. Now everything you do will be in question. Good luck. This is like when Jack in the Box made everyone sick and then they rebranded. Im sick and tired of people taking advantage of everyone for their "IT" factor. Figure yourselves out. I hope you read all 31k comments, you need it to fix your egos.
You know what’s budget friendly and way better than what you’re doing now? Going back to your roots, cutting the fancy out. All we want is Shane, Ryan, an implied ghost and a dumb ass spirit box.
Other people in the comments have made this point, I'll reiterate. I think I can understand why they want a bigger budget to try bigger things. As creative people they probably don't want to do the same thing over again (as much as we enjoy watching) think about ghost files and mystery files, in foundation they are the same as the BuzzFeed unsolved videos we watched, but done up and with more creativity, just as they envisioned. They probably have a million different creative ideas they want to try out so the bigger budget makes sense.
I really dislike the new episodes. I would pay 6 bucks to go back to just two guys in a room with a bulletin board.
Maybe not the spirit box.
“Fancy stuff” is what it takes to get ad revenue on UA-cam or through any other platform. Ad revenue is also taking a lot of cuts from whoever is hosting the show (UA-cam notorious for demonetizing shows over anything remotely not ad-friendly).
Ticket sales and merch sales is great but it also costs money to travel for shows, to make merch, etc. so they need ad revenue to make shows like Ghost Files, which is without a doubt one of the most expensive shows they make (travel expenses for ghoul boys + production crew, location filming rights, production and post production crew salaries, plus project managers to keep track of all the contracts, hotels, flights, and shooting schedules, etc.) No matter what people say, it’s going to be an expensive show and the only way to make a smaller budget for that is less episodes and less locations taking a 6-8 episode show and bringing it down to 2-3 a season and that’s STILL expensive to make.
Too much ego for that, and also greed.
My favorite videos from Watcher are still the pandemic “are you scared” vids where it’s just Ryan and Shane on zoom. Please don’t feel like you have to blow your budget on production when we just want to see y’all hang out and tell each other scary stories. I love you guys and felt like your shows gave me some much needed laughs during a difficult time. Thank you for hearing our concerns and actually making changes. It really means a lot.
I miss old are you scared so much, it was one of my faves
same i love are you scared so much. it's just ryan telling his best friend spooky horror stories in a dark room but it's so enjoyable. the contrast of the horror of the story and their silly jokes works so well.
I completely agree!!!!
Are you scared was my favorite series too!
it's really wholesome how much the community cares
I'm glad y’all walked this back and apologized BUT the fact that you would have had to "bring Watcher to a close" without this streaming service... that just screams financial mismanagement. If your costs are that high with ALL of your income streams, then it's your job as a business to budget and downsize if needed, not to pass on the cost to your own fanbase in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
Apology Files.
OMG 😭😭
All ex-buzzfeed employees who start their own channel need to schedule a consultation with Safiya. Absolutely none of them have done it as well as she has, and her content isn’t behind a paywall.
Safiya is a gem
Nah they need to talk to rhett and link. They have the right business model. They have the mythical society which has teirs, gives gifts quarterly, and special content and podcasts. And they still make gmm everyday and have the mythical kitchen channel. Plus rhett and link already helped smosh rebrand and become more successful when they bought it after Anthony left, so they have success stories.
I didn't know she was an ex-buzzfeed employee. Huh!
HEAR HEAR... and she moved away from lala land didn't she?
@@carimeslockdownedtree2654 yessss she was on lady like!
It's like they just did the biggest, most public focus group ever 😂
Shocked they didn’t seem to have done a focus group in the first place, since there’s no way one representative of the fans would’ve suggested going ahead with the original model
literally. including lists and lists of what warket and what's not for every show
@@saraknapp7909 Idk, social media and online content creation is still such a new branch of entertainment. Part of their appeal is that they arent part of a major broadcast company, their creativity and sincerity isnt stifled by executive oversight. But that also means they cant benefit from a major broadcast company's DECADES of experience from calculating trends to PR management. At the end of the day, Watcher is a team of young people, measuring the temp of the water with their hands and hoping their sincerity will carry them through. They're bound to make mistakes, but they're also willing to listen.
they could have just done this on the patreon in the first place smdh
@@EmmaGray13 patreon wouldn't be a good focus group since they're all paying at least $5 a month already.
Guys, listen here. I love you and stuff, but you're supposed to be low budget Scooby Doo. I support competition to youtube, but I'm not paying for a separate membership to watch drunk Scooby Doo.
I've watched this a few times, and I never understood why it felt strange to me. We can tell it's a scripted apology, making sure they touch all points they want to make... but Shane and Ryan show emotion and remorse for what happened. Steven doesn't. His body language and verbal intonations while speaking are as if he's simply reading off the cue cards. He doesn't display any emotional nonverbal cues when Shane and Ryan are apologizing, but Steven does show emotional nonverbal cues when Shane or Ryan are explaining things. There's seemingly a disconnect with Steven, that he is not remorseful for how this has ostracized and damaged the trust of the fanbase and Watcher community. He doesn't display any type of remorseful or apologetic body language or gestures... Which is not normal for him and the content he's put out in the past. Shane and Ryan are far more authentic in this apology - and Steven is not. I know he's now the CEO, but if he is not able to keep this company afloat with all the money they're making - then better business decisions ought to be made than putting up a paywall and trashing the trust that was built over the years.
In all fairness, them saying “I’m sorry” right off the bat is already 10x better than how most other UA-camr apologies go.
Very true
They are still firm on their stance despite their wording
dont excuse their greedy bs
++
"right off the bat" it was 3 days of radio silence
"we failed to take into consideration the..uh..poors"
basically... and they would of gotten away with it if it wasn't for you lousy peasants. LMAO
Lmao
Pretty much what they said and they would've left them to get screwed, these soy drinkers
*cue Fickelgruber gagging into a handkerchief*
This comment should be pinned 😂😂😂
Dudes, I'm a teacher, so I know what it's like to have to or want to do a lot with very little, so I get why you made your choice. I've also been on the back side of eating crackers and ketchup packets for lunch because I only had enough money to put gas in my car to get to work so I understand why some folks found your comments about affordability crass and insensitive. I discovered you guys a couple of years ago and your content helped me survive completing a doctoral thesis and coursework while working two jobs. Watching your episodes after hours of writing was a reward I provided myself. That is why I immediately signed up for your subscription service; I felt like you were making this decision from a place of struggle and I wanted to help keep you guys around. Thanks for listening to your fanbase and I hope you can rise through this without much more fallout.
i understand wanting to improve production quality. i see nothing wrong with that at face value, however if that directly puts you at risk of s h u t i n g d o w n? that’s a skill issue and as a broke girlie even i know you’re probably working above your means. kudos for apologizing though 😅
For just $5.99 a month you can feed these poor Buzzfeed refugees 😢
I’m dead 😂😭
best comment 💀
😂
💀💀
🎶 *in the armmmmmms ooof an angel….* 🎶
Kind of bummed that we didn't get 3 ukuleles in this one
Hahaha omg 🤣
Colleen has forever changed people's brain chemistry (mine too)
Ok but instead of that bitch they at least said 'im sorry' 😂😂 Colleen cant even do that (not that it can save her career anyways)
😂
Nahhhhh brooo 💀💀💀💀💀
Nah the damage is done lol, a few rich guys being completely detached from reality? Say it ain’t so 🙄
I’ve always been a Shaniac but I’ll never be a sucker
steven only speaking twice in this video makes a lot of sense to me
Lmao. And it's about money too
And one of those was specifically to apologise for the "anyone can afford" comment, which I appreciate. Even if he was clearly reading off a script, but I imagine they wanted to be super careful with how they worded this so hey.
he aint getting that second tesla
They would have kept more interest if he had stayed this way since the beginning. Scripts and production value went way down as his lines and pay have increased.
@@mommyyoungbloodthat seemed unnecessarily mean to me, as someone who only subscribed to watcher bc of Steven I can only hope he is “worth it” for the company but would be devastated if he stopped being on screen bc of this
NOT THE TRY GUYS COUCH
THATS WHAT I WAS THINKING
LITERALLY
Iconic 😂
Lmaooo that’s all I could see
THATS WHAT I SAID
This feels like...
going out to dinner with someone you thought you knew well, and loved hanging out with, and watching them be the most pompous and condescending customer of the night to the overworked, teenage waiter.
They notice your shock and horror, and you talk for two hours walking them through why treating someone poorly is - in fact - bad; that is cruel and apathetic, that someone's job being in customer service does not make them beneath you as a customer.
It takes those two hours for them to *concede* that they were rude to someone who didn't deserve it.
You do not correct them that it is not about deserving. The past two hours showed that they don't, and wont, understand that actions that warrant accountability, or even big reactions, does not equate with deserving cruelty.
Correcting them that their actions were not undeservingly rude, but inhumane, would only make them get defensive, and the small step forward was too much work to take it back.
They will not understand what it takes to make a clock tick, so you settle for teaching them how to tell the time.
When you go home, you lay down in silence, and question everything you believed about your friend; every interaction, every characteristic, every word and feeling... everything.
You question if your friendship was ever genuine, or based in some senseless social game. You wonder how you could know if your relationship born of interpersonal connection or strategy. You wonder if they actually like you, and how they would've treated you if you had a different social standing.
You wonder if you truly want to know the answers to your questions.
You stare into nothing so long that you don't know if you've even slept when light comes creeping through the window.
You want to know if they know what gears are, and you don't know if you regret not teaching them about clockwork.
You don't know if you will, you don't know if you even want to.
You don't know if you even want to keep them as a friend anymore.
They got the complimenting bots running now lmao. These guys are cooked. Thank Steven for your downfall
They must have troll farms writing those cringy positive comments
@Michael-iq9zd yep. 100% they hired a bot farm
I guess we know the 26th person employed by watcher is a PR 😅
😂😂😂
Bro PR is drinking and celebrating right now
They got the same person from the try guys
Oh, absolutely, steven lim is the CEO but isn’t in the middle, Shane is, and shane and ryan are doing most of the talking. people are mad at Steven bc they expect it from him but not shane and ryan.
Brilliant🤣🤣
"Hey gang, were gonna release our shows for our patrons first, like pretty much everyone else, but for at 5 dollar tier you get exclussive behind the scene footage and get to watch stevens new show." Why didn't you just do that first, instead of having to go back and do this after losing a bunch of followers?
You guys left the 1st place for mo money... now yous are somewhat independent its still not enough? With your back catalog, thats hard to beleive. Then the fact you guys do alot of sitting in the chair and the other one does the story reading... i cant understand how that format video is a high budget production. Please elaborate?
God the past 48 hours was like waiting to hear if your friend would make it out of the ICU alive after setting themselves on fire
💯
😂
So funny and so true!
Great analogy
😅exactly ❤
Just keep it simple, guys. We really don't care about "better" production value. I miss the days when it was just Ryan and Shane talking about mysteries and visiting spooky places. Thank you for at least considering the feedback you received.
Have you considered that no grown up man wants to be stuck doing the same stuff for over a decade? Its fine if we want the old content, those videos still exist, but they are different people now so of course they want to create different stuff.
Sending Ryan, Shane and small crew into the woods to find Bigfoot is one of my favorite episodes. Yal didn't find Bigfoot but I laughed my ass off.
they care. artists want to grow. they want to make better art. while you are the audience the creators opinion matters too.
They don't want to fire anyone. Reducing production costs involves firing people.
Amen to that
Listen I’ve got nothing against yall personally, you clearly aren’t bad people but this has just left a lingering fart stench in the air that I fear won’t be dissipating. The plot has been lost here and I am personally not very interested in seeing it through. Best of luck to you fellas.