Gary Beuchler is a guy who used to run a comic book shop. Before that, he was in prison for a time. It's something he's very open about, but it doesn't define him. In fact, what does define him is something that, decades ago, would have been considered niche and too nerdy for most people to care about.
Beuchler sits in a room that is lined wall-to-wall with action figures. He has busts of famous characters from fantasy and sci-fi littered around the room, replicas of famous costumes, and an unapologetic love for movies, games, and shows that come anywhere near his wheelhouse.
I'd tell you he's the king of the nerds, but that wouldn't cover how far this man's reach is, and how many different kinds of people follow him.
He's not just the most popular culture YouTuber, he's become what the legacy media wished it still was.
See, Beuchler, over time, became more popular than them. Today, he's getting more viewers than major news networks, including Fox News.
According to Geeks and Gamers, YouTube has begun outpacing news channels in the key 24-54 demographic compared to other channels like Fox, CNN, and MS NOW, which I suppose those last two are redundant to say, as they've always trailed Fox.
First, the numbers for the networks:
Fox News averaged 2.299 million total viewers and 183,000 viewers in the 25-54 age demographic. This means viewership went up 2 percent overall and down 12 percent in this particular age demographic compared to the previous week. Fox News averaged 1.448 million total viewers and 130,000 demo viewers compared to the week prior, bringing total viewership down 4 percent and demo viewership down 6 percent.
Surprisingly, CNN beat MS Now with 590,000 total primetime viewers and 108,000 demo viewers, compared to MS Now's 554,000 total viewers and 57,000 demo viewers.
How did Beuchler's channel on YouTube, Nerdrotic, compare?
As you can see, it edged them all out:
A recent Friday Night Tights livestream on the Nerdrotic channel has 215,000 views, which is more than any of those three legacy news outlets had for the week of May 25 in the key 25-54 demographic. Considering the topics Friday Night Tights discusses, such as movies, television, comics, and video games (not so much Gary on that last one), it is fair to assume, as Pro and the panel do, that most, if not all, of the show's audience falls into that demographic.
This might sound surprising, but if you sit with it for a while, you'll realize this fact is entirely logical.
For his part, Beuchler used his YouTube channel to talk about his nerd-related interests; he became one of the most looked-up-to YouTubers for cultural opinion and news. He hosts a panel every Friday called "Friday Night Tights," where he and other popular YouTubers in the space discuss the latest goings-on in the entertainment industry.
For all intents and purposes, it leans rightward. In fact, his constant co-host, Jeremy, who runs Geeks and Gamers, is an avowed Trump supporter.
Add to the fact that there is a dearth of right-leaning opinion on entertainment that delves as deeply as Beuchler and the gang does, and you have a cornered market.
That said, I think it goes deeper than that.
Again, this is supposed to be "niche," but it's not. I think people are actually upset about the state of the culture, and Buechler and his associates give people respite from that. While they know the political area of our society is radicalized and corrupt, they seem to see the culture as the originator of it all, and they're right to do so. Beuchler pushing back in the way that he does resonates with people so much that they've begun seeing him as the more prominent voice in the pushback.
And Nerdrotic is just one aspect of the YouTube monster that's become the mainstream media. As I've covered before, more people are going to YouTube for not just news and opinion, but everything. Documentaries, entertainment, how-to videos, cheap time wasters, you name it.
Read: Who Is the King of Streaming? Data Suggests Something Surprising
I think the tide has turned. People consume media differently than they used to.
Do I think the legacy media is done for? Not really, but I do think they will have to fundamentally alter how they approach the people and even what they provide. With how people consume media changing so drastically, these networks will have to put their heads together to figure out how to keep up with people like Buechler.
The problem is, while they have a lot of resources and money, what they don't have is agility and speed, which is something the internet increasingly demands.
