How the creator and stars of a hit YouTube series attract 250 million viewers as streamers and theaters compete for audiences – Crew Call Podcast

While studio and network executives are wracking their brains over what the under-25 demographic is craving, versatile creator and actor Alan Chikin Chow, the man behind the YouTube hit series Alan's Universe, and its cast of Chelsea Sik, Michelle Park and Haven Everly have already figured it out.

While streaming services cannibalize their audiences and movie ticket sales decline, this quartet of teen comedy series has a mobile appeal Alan's Universe a mixture of Charlie Chaplin, Korean soaps and Riverdale. Chow plays the protagonist, a genuine guy with a big heart and lots of love to share with his classmates, but unfortunately teenage life, mean girls (Chow even made a guest appearance in the Paramount reboot) and bullies get in the way. This week's episode is titled “I Survived the World's EVILEST Teacher,” while last week's headlines were “My Girlfriend Is PREGNANT AGAIN.” Scroll down for a laugh.

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We speak to the four of them on this week's Crew Call, which you can listen to below:

The numbers speak for themselves: Alan's Universe The channel's total viewership is 39 billion worldwide and subscribers are 45 million. Chow alone has 60 million followers. The series had 250 million viewers throughout its run, with the average viewership per episode being 10 million. Incidentally, regarding the latter statistic, that's double the audience that watched Dune – Part Two over the opening weekend (5.2 million visitors) and half of the domestic audience that attended the opening weekend Spider-Man: No Way Home in his first weekend (20M). Alan's Universe is so successful that it even featured 94M TikTok sensation and singer Bella Poarch as a guest star.

Chow began creating short-form content during his college years at USC. His parents were also moving away from their friends and family to a small town in West Virginia at the time. To give them hope and encouragement during the difficult move, Chow made videos for them. Soon after, he began working with digital creators and producers Lilly Singh, Ken Mok and Steven He, where his short-form platform took off over the past three years. The creative director/co-writer of Alan's Universe is Stepan Leptav and the producer is Roman Tsuprik. Given his reach, brands such as Netflix, Max (formerly HBO Max), McDonald's, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Old Spice have approached Chow for partnerships and campaigns. Alan's Universe Cast members like Park have also found opportunities for branding: For example, the actress created a basketball spot for Procter & Gamble's “Always.”

In addition to her work on Alan's Universe, The quartet works together on various sketches and pieces, be it a costumed performance of from the inside to the outside (Hey, Disney Marketing, join in the promotion of Inside Out 2), to Park's VFX-fueled Marvel-esque creations, to Everly's musical performances with her mother, who was also a professional singer in the Philippines. Sik recently starred in the short film Foreign Planet which won several film festival awards, while Park starred in the Chinese feature film that grossed $64 million worldwide in 2020 The rescue. Everly has appeared on shows such as Netflix YOUShowtimes The L-wordand ABCs The beginner. She also recently released her music single “Raised By Wolves” on Spotify. Other main actors in Alan's Universe includes Nikolai “Kolunya” Spesivtsev, Katusha Tolstopyatova and Lena “Nitlenka” Nizh.

Attention Disney marketing chief Asad Ayaz:

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