YouTube gathered a group of rising influencers, and Trevor Noah, in New York to show off its latest wares.
The Google-owned streamer held its first ever Creator Premieres showcase at the Metrograph and launched a raft of new titles including a new weekly, late-night show and a stand-up special from former Daily Show host Noah.
It comes as YouTube is turning its focus to promote a small number of creators and on-camera stars that debut their shows exclusively on the platform. It comes on the back of the launch party for season three of Brittany Broski’s Royal Court, where execs noted the difference between “Old Hollywood” and “New Hollywood”.
Google President Sean Downey also crowed about YouTube being the number one streamer for the last two years, per Nielsen. Data from Nielsen’s The Gauge report highlighted that in terms of monthly viewing by platform, it had a 12.6% share in September, compared to Netflix’s 8.3% share.
The event was hosted by rising influencer Julian Shapiro-Barnum, who runs the Recess Therapy channel, which has 1.3M subscribers. Shapiro-Barnum is also launching a new, live, weekly, late-night series, premiering in the spring called Outside Tonight.
Set in public parks and on street corners, Outside Tonight features interviews, audience-driven games, live music, and comedy.
YouTube is also leaning into stand-up comedy in a big way with the launch of a new special from Trevor Noah.
Trevor Noah: The Lost SA Special, which will debut on his channel, was filmed in South Africa during Noah’s last world tour and sees him performing entirely local material.
Elsewhere, Mark Vins, a wildlife filmmaker and explorer is launching Reef to Ridge on the Brave Wilderness channel, which has over 21M subscribers. Vins and his team will kind journey across the Galápagos’ most extreme habitats – diving deep beneath the sea and scaling the highest volcanic summit – to document rare wildlife and confront mounting threats to one of Earth’s most wild frontiers
Other stars included Cleo Abram, who has a new episode of What If An Asteroid Is About To Hit The Earth? and Deestroying is taking his 1v1 football series to London.
Dhar Mann is also launching 7 Days of Christmas, a scripted series that features seven 25-minute episodes.
Ms. Rachel is also premiering new episodes of her kids series on her YouTube channel in early 2026. This comes after she sold some episodes of her show to Netflix.
Downey, Google’s President of Americas and Global Partners, said, “YouTube creators are building global communities through content that is authentic, engaging, and premium. They’re not only driving culture – they’ve created an irreversible change in entertainment, which has redefined viewing behavior. For advertisers, YouTube presents a unique opportunity to make an impact with their desired audiences, by aligning and deeply integrating their brands with the voices that they actively seek out.”