Parrot Analytics’ entertainment industry strategist Brandon Katz explores how the creator economy is challenging the traditional film and TV hierarchy when it comes to remuneration of its brightest stars, with YouTube already paying more for content than Netflix.
Peacock’s Love Island USA is the most in-demand streaming original reality series in the US
With all due respect to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was not the first Hollywood head honcho to create an interconnected franchise.
Long before the MCU popularised blockbuster crossovers and team-ups, reality television frequently gathered stars from various seasons of a given show and even different series. Together, these beloved and/or hated figures would compete against one another, fall in love, cheat, betray and have fun — all to the delight of fans who revelled in seeing these disparate ‘stars’ in the same show.
The popularity of this model reflects not only the significance of reality programming in today’s entertainment landscape, but the opportunistic upside of building out a following in the social media era. After all, it is the enduring popularity of these big personalities that positions them to return in subsequent seasons, shows and specials.
At a time when creators, influencers and social media stars can arguably be as valuable as traditional TV and film stars, this can’t be overlooked.
There are a few key nuggets of insight we can mine from the most in-demand streaming original reality series in the US year-to-date across most of the major services, according to Parrot Analytics. These include: Love Island USA (Peacock), Ink Master (Paramount+), Love is Blind (Netflix), The Kardashians (Hulu), Are You Sure?! (Disney+), The Goat (Amazon Prime Video) and Trixie Motel (Max).
You can make a strong case that each of these series are personality-driven shows that rely on the gravitational force of the central figures and contestants. This is especially true for shows such as The Kardashians and Are You Sure?!, which revolve around world famous celebrities.
In many ways, a reality programme such as Are You Sure?! is a strategic extension of K-pop group BTS’s brand that helps fans engage with their favourite musical group in a new way. On the streaming side, if the service can convert just a small percentage of the sizable followings these celebs boast, there’s usually enough audience to justify the cost.
Though not ranked above, Hulu’s three season The D’Amelio Show has its roots in social media. This underscores the various funnels of stardom we see today and the thinking behind tapping digital personalities for expanded platforms. The same goes for Amazon Prime Video’s expanded partnership with YouTube star MrBeast, and Netflix’s deal with social media personality Addison Rae. Success on these efforts varies, but points to a continued willingness to experiment with integrating digital media stars into traditional entertainment.
According to Forbes, the median compensation among top 10 highest-paid creators was a mouth-watering US$34m, only slightly behind movie stars (US$41.5m). YouTube paid out US$23bn to creators last year, 53% more than Netflix paid for content (US$15bn). The landscape is in transition.
Returning to that MCU model, The Goat gathers reality stars from a wide web of past series to compete against one another. Notoriety is easier to achieve today than ever before with everyone walking around with a DIY production studio in their pockets. Leveraging that awareness in order to transition into greater on-screen opportunities can be a viable funnel.
Importantly, these top-performing streaming original reality series help to fortify the foundational audience demographic targets of their respective streaming services. Namely, female audiences in the 25 to 41 age ranges. These shows enable the platforms to maintain key viewer clusters. Building around social media stars can potentially create conversion pathways to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, which would complement these existing audiences.
If we zoom out beyond just streaming originals and include licensed series, we get an even better sense of how valuable reality programming has become to major platforms. All seven premium streaming services mentioned above boast at least one reality series among the 20 most in-demand TV shows in the US year-to-date.
Not only is this a key, cost-effective source of engaging programming for the streamers, but a field ripe for the growing digital media space to leverage moving forward.
