Fox Creator Studios has set a production pact with comedian Tom Segura’s YMH Studios for a slate of projects designed to be released on his exiting digital and direct-to-consumer channels.
The deal calls for Fox Creator Studios and YMH to jointly develop and finance properties that will be released through YMH’s established digital and podcast networks. Austin-based YMH Studios has 2.1 million followers on YouTube. Segura is highly regarded as a standup comedian who has logged seven Netflix standup specials since 2014, and he leads the comedy vignette series “Bad Thoughts” that is available on the streamer.
Fox’s goal in establishing the Fox Creator Studios is to get into business with established content entrepreneurs with a track record for building multiple business ventures on the foundation of their successful podcasts and personalities. In addition to Segura, personalities who work with YMH include Bert Kreischer, Christine Pazsitzky, Lauren Compton and Danny Brown. YMH Studios is headed by president Ryan P. Hall. Fox Creator Studios launched in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, led by media executive and investor Billy Parks.
“They are building businesses on their own,” Parks tells Variety, who launched Fox Creator Studios at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Parks was impressed that YMH even launched the “2 Bears 5K” touring venture that involves a 5K run with Kreischer and Segura that lands in various cities. The event leverages the fanbases for both standups by offering participants a chance to experience “fun, community and a legendary after-party,” per the 2B5K website.
Billy Parks, head of Fox Creator Studios
Photo credit: Andrew Stiles
“They have not just a podcast that Tom is on, but a podcast network that he’s built and supports with other podcasts that they own and operate. They have ad sales and a direct-to-consumer audience where they’re actually putting content up for pay per view,” Parks says. “And Tom had an idea for the show [‘Bad Thoughts’], and he said, instead of going through a lot of development and pitching and getting someone to say ‘yes,’ he put his money and his time and his energy where his mouth was. That kind of fierce independence and understanding of his own audience and the direct-to-consumer relationship is very in sync with what we’re doing at Creator Studio.”
Teaming with Fox allows YMH Studios to pursue more ambitious ideas, Segura tells Variety. The partners have an active slate of multiple projects including “a stand-up comedy showcase spotlighting both established and emerging voices; a horror comedy animated series; and a live-action comedy series set in an airport bar,” per Fox Creator Studios. News of the YMH Studios deal with Fox Creator Studios comes on the same day Fox’s West L.A. studio lot is set to host a conference featuring a gathering of top creator economy figures, “Press Publish LA: The Hollywood Creator Summit.”
“Everyone knows it takes money to work with the people you want to work with, and you need it to just to get the cameras rolling,” Segura says. “It’s also the minds that work there, and hearing their input, everything from creative thoughts to maybe tapping a certain d.p. or a producer that we’re able to ask about. Or it’s having the discussion about what’s the best approach for distributing this. They have a lot of incredible resources in that world, and that makes it exciting to have a partnership with someone that elevates what you’re doing.”
Hall says Fox’s strength in adult animation with “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” and other shows is a fit with YMH Studios’ audience. They’ve been approached by Hollywood heavyweights with offers in the past but the circumstances were never right.
“Billy and I spent arguably too much time together for months and months talking through this and being like, ‘Is this a good match?” Hall says. “We really have had success by just allowing ourselves to make the thing that we want to make, and that’s worked for two seasons of ‘Bad Thoughts.’ To Billy’s credit and Fox’s credit, they’re like, We’ll give you the support if you need it, but we want to give you the liberty to just kind of go. We trust your instincts, and vice versa.”
Digital media entrepreneurs who are succeeding at the scale of Segura and YMH Studios need that kind of speed, Hall says.
“In this new creator world, you have the choice — you can make it, or just sit in business affairs for eight months. People are gonna figure out a way to make it,” he says.
Parks stresses that the YMH Studios deal is emblematic of the types of creators that Fox Creator Studios aims to recruit. It’s also a sign that the marketplace is evolving beyond YouTubers and TikTok-ers to talent that in a different era would have pursued network sitcoms and raunchy studio comedies.
“Creators come in all shapes and sizes, whether they’re just publishing on TikTok, and they’re want to tell a story and try something new, or they’re one of the world’s biggest touring comedians with two massive series on Netflix and seven comedy specials on Netflix that are a total beacon for comedians,” Parks says. “It’s anybody who has a great direct-to-consumer relationship with the audience and has a vision and is ready to go make it. These guys have great ideas, and we’re just super-psyched that they wanted to make them here.”
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