YouTube’s Biggest Stars Talk Podcasting, Advice for Future Creators and Wanting Emmy Recognition

variety.com:

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor In a special live taping of Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast at SXSW, some of YouTube’s most influential creators sat down to discuss the platform’s evolution as it approaches its 20th anniversary this April.

Joining the conversation were Sean Evans, Host of “Hot Ones” and Chief Creative Officer, First We Feast; Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, Hosts of “Good Mythical Morning” and Founders, Mythical Entertainment; and Marques Brownlee, Host of “Waveform Podcast.” Each reflected on their unexpected journeys to digital stardom and the changing landscape of content creation.

YouTube, which now boasts over 1 billion monthly active podcast users, has become a dominant force in digital entertainment, allowing creators to build careers outside of traditional media.

But for these panelists, success wasn’t always the plan. “I personally have no idea. I’ve done so many laps around any expectation I ever had for myself and crashed through all of these ceilings,” Evans admitted. “I never dreamed that it would be on camera and that we’d have this talk show that has somehow broken containment and made it this far, even to the cover of a magazine this time around.” McLaughlin and Neal, known for their quirky experiments and lighthearted approach to entertainment, had a less conventional vision of their future careers. “Where we come from, the idea of an entertainer was this guy that came to our middle school dances and he could do magic, but he was also a DJ,” McLaughlin joked.