The most watched TV show on the planet now has a YouTuber host.

Like many car enthusiasts, I’ve been a fan of Chris Harris since he first started publishing videos in 2007, and now as he joins the BBC’s Top Gear, the world’s most widely-watched factual show, he is a prime example of the blurring boundaries between online and traditional media. The UK’s Telegraph just announced his role, claiming Harris is “virtually unknown.” I’d challenge that assessment. Harris is in fact quite well known in the virtual world, while many millennial viewers might consider the Telegraph“virtually unknown.” By employing the top online automotive video star, the BBC is moving to ensure that next iteration of Top Gear stays relevant and connected to modern viewers.

Working in the online video industry over the past five years, I’ve seen a massive shift in the way traditional media approaches the online medium. In 2010, many traditional media execs questioned the “premium” nature of YouTube content and creators. Premium content, to them, was defined by production techniques, format and first window platforms for the content or talent. In the online world we, of course, tend to look more at audience, engagement, authenticity and impact of social community as a bar for premium.

In those respects, Harris has been premium since day one on YouTube. Harris brought an accessible authenticity to the world of cars that was unheard of in automotive journalism. In a vertical that is often highly crafted by car manufacturer PR people and press junkets, Harris showed his followers the behind the scenes of being a journalist, traveling to the launches, dealing with car company publicists who wanted him to drive specific places and tell specific stories, when he just wanted to take cars to the limit and actually share the authentic experience with followers. You could follow Harris tweeting out a photo of the not-so-glamorous moments waiting for a 5am flight at Heathrow, or an Instagram of his drives around his home town in the U.K. just as much as you could share the excitement of drifting the latest Porsche or Ferrari in an exotic location on YouTube.

Harris doesn’t just tell you every new super car is amazing as many magazines do, he authentically shares the subtle pros or cons of a car regardless of its price tag or what the manufacturer wanted him to say about their latest high-HP marvel. He famously offended Ferrari and was banned from testing their cars. That ban was short-lived because Harris had amassed such a hardcore YouTube following that wealthy Ferrari owners literally started handing over the keys to their brand new toys for the chance at having them featured in a Chris Harris YouTube video. One such video—in which Harris borrows a 458 Spider and drifts the tires off it for the next five glorious minutes —became a car enthusiast cult classic. Ferrari press office took notice of the massive social media that video generated, reversed its ban, and on the next launch literally rented Harris a racetrack and provided five sets of tires for him to put their latest F12 to the test. That’s a triumph of authentic creator and fan following.

And yet, when all that was happening in 2013, the world of online and offline was still divided. That year, I had a conversation with a studio exec about Harris and his incredible Ferrari comeback, and it was the same old, “He’s on YouTube. We’re about ‘premium.’”  You know who you are and if you’re reading this today, Harris is going to be on Top Gear, one of the biggest shows in the world. Is that not premium enough?

Read the full article on the Video Ink.

Screengrab via Chris Harris on Cars/YouTube

In 2014, Netflix announced it was developing a guaranteed two-season show with Judd Apatow. More than a year later, we finally get to see what they've been up to.

The show is called Love, and it's a collaboration between Apatow, Girls writer Leslie Arfin, and Comedy Bang! Bang!'s Paul Rust. Community's Gillian Jacobs stars. 

Even though the teaser doesn't give us too much to go on, it gives everyone a peek at the show's dry, #relatable humor.

If you were on the Internet in 2007, you probably remember Pearl, Will Ferrell's foul-mouthed landlord who was totally pissed that he was late on his monthly rent.

Sure, Pearl was just a 20-month old girl, but man, her words could cut you deep. Remember this Funny or Die video? Surely some of you do, because it attracted 83 million views.

"It actually worked out perfectly," McKay said. "She never really did anything else. She did one other video. It's just a fun little thing. She's the landlord."

That's not to say she didn't have the chance. After the video went viral, Pearl was offered a role in a Jackie Chan movie and a photo spread in People magazine. Her parents declined all offers.

McKay was surprised by the landlord video's popularity. He said they shot the film in about 20 minutes as he and Ferrell goofed around in Ferrell's guest house. Because Pearl was going through a phase where she repeated everything that was said to her, the two thought it'd be funny to feed her those insulting, expletive-laden lines and make Ferrell's character cry.

"[The video] just exploded," McKay said. "My wife was so mad at me. She said beforehand, 'Don't you dare turn our daughter into a child star.' I said, 'Honey, it's going to get, like, a million hits. No one cares.'"

But the combination of YouTube's nascent power and Ferrell's stardom—plus the utter hilarity of the video itself—turned the video into a hit, one of the Internet's first big ones. Luckily, Pearl seems like a normal 10-year-old these days.

Well, almost.

"She does own a Corvette and dates an Armenian guy who's twice her age," McKay said.

H/T Uproxx | Screengrab via Funny or Die

Proof positive? This boilerplate Internet gag—another Baracksdub, wherein the president's speeches are spliced together and map familiar pop songs—manages to sizzle and spark. 

Illustration by Max Fleishman

BY TODD LONGWELL

Today’s news that Yahoo quietly shuttered its premium video portal Yahoo Stream last week (first reported by Variety) comes as no big surprise, given the $42 million write-down it’s taking for its original shows Other Space, Sin City Saints, and season 6 of the axed NBC show Community and reports that it’s pulled the plug on several high-profile series on its development slate (The Pursuit, The Ultimate D.J.).

But rather than rush forward with dire predictions about what new horrors might lie in store for the once-mighty Internet giant—which, according to reports, is either selling or spinning off its core business—VideoInk thought it would better pause for a moment to consider the factors that led to Yahoo Screen’s demise, because A) schadenfreude is a time-honored show-business tradition, and B) we might just learn something.

1) Lack of promotion

If you spend big money on shows, let people know about it. Yahoo went all out when it announced its programming slate to the industry and advertisers with a splashy NewFronts presentation last April, but it dropped the ball when it came to letting people—press, industry, and everyday viewers—know that the series were available to watch or even that such a thing as Yahoo Screen existed. In contrast, Netflix sends out a press release and a social media blast every time it drops a new trailer or adds a cast member to one of its shows.

2) A buggy video player

The Internet is rife with tales of Yahoo Screen’s stuttering video and lags, freezes and crashes that made watching a challenge, if not downright unbearable. The result: Viewers that did find Yahoo Screen were not encouraged to stick around and watch more.

3) Old-school attitude

Signing CBS Evening News anchor and Today (NBC) co-host Katie Couric as “global news anchor” may have been a coup that impressed Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s old media peers, but it wasn’t something that appealed to the millennials who constitute the core demographic in the digital space. Online video has its own rules and rhythms, as well as its own homegrown stars, both of which are beginning to reshape the look of linear TV. Hiring Couric sent the wrong brand message at the wrong time, making it look like a fuddy duddy compared to the networks, which have been effectively harnessing social video with programs such as The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, and CBS’ The Late Late Show with James Corden.

The shuttering of Yahoo Screen is another sad entry in a litany of recent woes for the Sunnyvale, California-based tech company. One of the giants of the dial-up Internet age, Yahoo has seen its fortunes decline drastically in recent months.

Read the full article at the Video Ink.

Photo via Abu/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Starting Jan. 1, the state of Texas began allowing licensed gun owners to openly carry their handguns. But for some, it's more than just a new law—it's a way of life.

The open-carry law finally allowed handgun owners to embrace who they really are. They could walk on the street with their guns, and nobody could say anything about it. In fact, it reminded Trevor Noah of another time people were finally allowed to be who they are.

“This is almost a little bit like when gay people first realized that society was starting to accept that people might be openly gay, and they immediately went out and started dancing on truck beds dressed as giant penises,” he said. “Which, on the one hand, is great. I mean, you be you. But at a certain point, we get it. You love giant penises.”

Screengrab via The Daily Show

There are movies and TV shows that have explored a comedian’s struggle with life after fame or at a certain age, but Brooke Arnold is letting us in on a different level. 

After the NYC-based performer started writing a memoir about her childhood a few years ago, she entertained the idea of doing standup. She debuted Brooke: The Webseries in October 2015 as a means of documenting her path as a comic—and the highs and lows along the way. 

In episode 1, she admits “I’m not really famous yet,” and so like many before her, YouTube is the medium to document her (hopeful) ascent into more mainstream fame. Episode 2 explores the eternal hustle comics endure to find stage time, refine material, and get known. 

Arnold, who’s been doing standup for two years now, didn’t grow up wanting to be a comic. She grew up in a fundamentalist Christian church— which she explored in some detail for Salon last year—and the Advanced Training Institute, the same controversial homeschooling program the Duggars were part of. In the piece, she unpacks the damaging ideology the program and its teachings instilled. When she left the church around age 18: 

I found myself suddenly thrust into a world that I was totally unprepared to navigate. Like Kimmy Schmidt fleeing from her bunker into the sunlight, I suddenly found myself surrounded by people and events that I had never been prepared for. It was nothing like the comically magical larger world that Kimmy Schmidt finds herself in. There were no handsome rich men, no forgiving landlords, no fabulous roommates, and certainly no sacks of cash. I entered a world full of things that I did not understand and a world full of people whose ill intentions I could not interpret or comprehend.

“I could be a cashier at Walmart and I’m still a rebel.”

Arnold says she did watch “old school Saturday Night Live” episodes when she was a teenager, but she didn’t have access to much pop culture or grow up idolizing comedians. “I was taught to believe that my only options as a woman were to get married and have children,” she said. “Even me having a job at an office was like this huge departure. That was success, you know? I could be a cashier at Walmart and I’m still a rebel. But the idea that I could ever do anything more, something creative or artistic, something in the public eye… That just never crossed my mind.”

But people started encouraging her to tell her stories, which gave Arnold the confidence to get on stage. The webseries also pulls back the curtain on how audiences often treat women comics. In episode 3, Arnold takes us “backstage” (i.e., the women’s bathroom) at a comedy club in Long Island, as she and fellow comic Kristy Belich wait to go up. They debate the slog: performing at less-than-ideal venues, getting enough stage time, or, as Arnold notes, hating yourself if you bomb. 

“Or you just keep getting on [stage] to get it better,” Belich says. “It’s like, you don’t hate yourself. You just go, ‘Oh, shit, that means I have to do two times more stages or three times more stages.’ And then once you get it good, then you get on stage and a guy is like, ‘Hey, fat girl.’” 

“I feel like there’s a tricky balancing act that you have to do,” she said. “When I first started, I set the bar really low for myself; the first month it was literally just, ‘Get on stage.’ Then it was like, ‘Stay on stage.’”

Photos via Brooke Arnold/YouTube | Remix by Max Fleishman

MythBusters fans everywhere got a bittersweet treat Monday from co-host Adam Savage as he shared the last scene ever filmed on the Discovery series. In true MythBusters fashion, the series goes out with a bang. Literally, as Savage jokes, “Here we go, grenades for everybody.”

Discovery’s longest-running series is coming to a close in 2016 after 14 seasons. This isn’t the first time that Savage has shared behind-the-scenes footage for fans of the series. The co-host previously documented the last day of filming on Nov. 11, 2015.

“It was my greatest fear that Mythbusters would just stop and we wouldn’t be able to do proper final episodes,” Savage explained to Entertainment Weekly last year.

“Making MythBusters has fundamentally and irrevocably altered the way I think as a person, as an artist, and as a scientist,” Savage says of the final season. “I’m glad for the chance to say goodbye with some of the best television we’ve ever made. I will miss making this show.”

The last season of the Mythbusters premiered on Sunday, Jan. 3 with Mythbusters Revealed. The show offered a behind-the-scenes peek as a special sendoff into its final season.

The rest of the episodes from the final season air Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on Discovery and the Science Channel.

Screengrab via donttrythis/Twitter

The move is a classic case of cross-promotion (Ryan Seacrest, Idol’s host, is the producer for Keeping Up With the Kardashians), and West seemed exuberant at making his case as a producer from the south side of Chicago with a dream. His pregnant wife, Kim Kardashian, waits outside with Ryan Seacrest, saying that she believes in him.

West raps an original track featuring one of the judges’ names, to which J.Lo replies, “it fucking better be me.” It is, in fact, the Grammy-nominated “Gold Digger,” which necessitates four bleeps for his audition to air, plus one for Jennifer Lopez’s outburst.

With 21 Grammy awards to his name, he doesn’t have much to be nervous about in earning his golden ticket to Hollywood, but West celebrates all the same.

American Idol begins its final season Wednesday, Jan. 6. 

H/T Newsweek | Screengrab via American Idol/YouTube

The Netflix documentary Making a Murderer has captivated its audience, and it’s banking on its next documentary to do the same—courtesy of Seth Meyers.

In the Late Night host's parody, Meyers's challenge is not to determine whether a man was framed for murder, but rather to confront a bigger dilemma: he’s been on vacation for two weeks and NBC ran out of reruns.

Screengrab via Late Night with Seth Meyers/YouTube

Each year, Forbes compiles a list of young difference-makers for its “30 Under 30” list. The online video community, given the youthful nature of its demographic makeup, is generally well-represented on Forbes’ list, and that was once again the case in 2016. The YouTube and Vine stars whose names turned among the most influential people under 30 years of age include Lilly Singh and Shawn Mendes.

Forbes chose Singh as one the honorees in its Hollywood & Entertainment category, where she stands next to big traditional media names like Brie Larson and Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke. Singh, the 27-year-old host of the IISuperwomanII YouTube channel, has tremendous appeal, particularly among Indian and South Asian audiences. She has used her sway to champion noble causes, such as her recent #GirlLove campaign. Also appearing on Forbes list of young Hollywood hotshots is Natalie Novak, who has worked with YouTube and Vine stars as an agent for UTA.

Forbes’ Music category features its own digital media stars. In addition to Mendes, who first found fame on Vine, Forbes also recognized Pentatonix, the a cappella group that parlayed its popularity on YouTube into a string of successful tours and albums. Finally, in its Media category, Forbes recognized another woman known for her digital video work: Ana Kasparian, who co-hosts the Young Turks YouTube channel.

Online video stars on Forbes’ 2015 30 Under 30 list included Freddie Wong and Hannah Hart. The publication’s 2014 honorees included Smosh and Grace Helbig.

For a full list of 2016’s 30 Under 30 selections, which spans 20 categories, click here.

Screengrab via IISuperWomanII/YouTube

Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel didn't show up for Cleveland's game Sunday, because, reportedly, he was partying in Las Vegas. Manziel wouldn't have played anyway since he was still in the league's concussion protocol, but he was expected to be at team headquarters last weekend and when he wasn't, the Browns couldn't find him.

Perhaps nobody could find him, because Manziel was in disguise.

According to USA Today, Manziel was dining and gambling at the Planet Hollywood casino on Saturday night, the day before Cleveland's season finale. At one point, he apparently tried to get a meal comped so he wouldn't have to pay with his credit card. But the reason a photo of Manziel in Las Vegas hasn't emerged is because he apparently was wearing "a blonde wig, a fake mustache, glasses, and a hoodie." Oh, and he reportedly was introducing himself as "Billy."

And when that day comes and his career if finished, it'll be a sad one for all the Photoshoppers of the world who live to entertain and sprinkle snark wherever they go. But we can take solace in this: While the Johnny Manziels of the world might come and go, the Billy Manziels stay in our hearts forever.

Photo via Erik Drost/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The magazine omitted the girl's name, phone number, and face from all of the screenshots and photos it ran, but it seems that people were able to figure out who she was anyway.  

On Monday 14-year-old Molly O'Malia held a press conference in New York City to address the story. The high school freshman said that the negative attention drove her to come forward and clear her name. Sitting alongside lawyer Gloria Allred, who is also representing the women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, O'Malia read the following from a prepared statement: 

Even though [OK!] pixelated my face and did not use my name, a lot of people could tell it was me. I never sent the communication to OK! Magazine, and I don’t know how they obtained it... [they] never even contacted my mom or me to check the facts to see if what they were publishing was true. I'm speaking out today because I don't want what happened to me to happen to any other young girl. 

The conference was livestreamed on TMZ, and allowed O'Malia to present her side of the story. Basically: Tyga slid into her DMs, complimenting her appearance and asking if she'd ever been to Los Angeles. Since O'Malia is an aspiring singer and model, she thought this might be a big break for her career. It wasn't until Tyga repeatedly asked her to FaceTime that she started to get weirded out.

Allred asked for a formal apology from OK!, who ran quotes from O'Malia's high school classmates stating that “she’s clearly enjoying” the attention, and that she finds the entire situation “exciting.” Allred claims that OK! running a story that places an underage girl in the middle of a sex scandal portrays her “in a completely false light” and exploits a minor.

This isn't Tyga's first time being accused of social media weirdness and soliciting underage girls. Earlier this year he had a cheating and dick pic-related scandal (NSFW), and he famously dated Jenner long before her 18th birthday. He officially came out as her boyfriend at her birthday party in August, where he gave her a Ferrari. 

For now, O'Malia's Instagram account (which has more than 50,000 followers) is set to private. 

H/T International Business Times | Screengrab via TMZ

As if you needed another reason to want to hang out with social media’s chillest, most fun celebrity couple. 

Oh, to be Vanessa and have your passion for an unhinged, sex-crazed 20-something waitstaff set to the soothing sounds of a nine-time Grammy award winner’s voice. 

This one’s for you tonight! 

Screenshot via Chrissy Teigen/Instagram

Could a Gilmore Girls reboot already be underway?

Both Netflix and Warner Bros. have yet to weigh in on the rumored revival, but actress Lauren Graham (Lorelai, forever in our hearts) has been pretty suggestive on Twitter:

Although the #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag was largely just a case of trolling (one that was ripe for mocking), some Star Wars fans did end up boycotting The Force Awakens because of its diverse cast. So Jimmy Kimmel made a version of the new Star Wars movie just for them.

The Force Awakens has made more than $1.54 billion at the box office so far, but one site claimed that the boycott from its readers cost Disney and Lucasfilm $4.2 million. That’s a tiny amount in the grand scheme of things, but according Kimmel, Disney wanted to make a version of the film more inclusive for those who organized the boycott.

At least one Daily Show correspondent has become sympathetic to the pleas of the Oregon militia that took over a federal wildlife refuge following a protest in support of two farmers sentenced for arson.

The militia has been mocked mercilessly online, and debates continue over whether its members are committing sedition (as well as what to call them), all while federal authorities try to avoid a confrontation. And perhaps the militia didn’t expect their standoff to last as long as it did, because they’ve now asked their supporters to send them food and supplies such as snacks, cold weather socks, snow camo, and energy drinks.

Jordan Klepper hears their call. Luckily for them, the standoff started just after Christmas, so he found a way to help the militia members and get rid of all of his terrible Christmas presents in one swoop. It’s not everything they asked for, but hey, it's something.

Warning: Story contains graphic sexual content. Also freedom. Sexy, sexy freedom.

There's something about the ongoing armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, that lends itself to literary comparison.

Is the siege by an Oregon militia of an empty bird sanctuary visitor center, and subsequent call for snacks, like the existentialist drama of Sartre's No Exit? Or is it like an absurdist Eugene Ionesco play that ends with everyone turning into a rhinoceros as a metaphor for creeping extremism? Or is it the rare comedy-of-errors Carl Hiaasen caper not set in South Florida?

In retrospect, the answer is obvious: It's a song by the Decemberists. Oregon's own hyper-literate indie rock heroes are known for penning prog-folk odes to romanticized obscura like an early 1900s Montana mining disaster, an ancient Irish wartime folktale, and an obsessive quest for nautical vengeance that ends with gruesome torture inside the belly of a whale. Let's be honest, what's more romantically obscure than a bunch of jamokes barricading themselves in an empty building in the middle of nowhere in protest of the federal government's land use policies?

When Decemberists lead singer Colin Meloy started tweeting about the standoff, it made a lot of sense. It made even more sense when he made it sexy.

Just like with the massive, outdoor music festivals the Decemberists have spent years headlining, the Internet tends to follow a very specific set of unofficial rules. Rule 34 states that if a thing exists on the Internet, there is also a pornographic version of that thing.

Shaun Smith had a nine-year career in the NFL as a defensive tackle for the Saints, Bengals, Chiefs, and Titans—which makes him qualified to analyze the football games he watches on TV. But not everybody who reads Smith on Twitter is going to agree with him, particularly if he's critical of a specific person's favorite team.

While musing on the reasons why Kansas City, where Smith finished his career, would beat Houston in the wild card round of the playoffs, apparent Texans fans didn't appreciate his analysis and began sending him mean replies.

Which led to this ...

But then, things got a little out of hand.

Smith later told somebody on Twitter that he had a license to carry the firearm, but he quickly took his account private. Smith later told TMZ that he was on his way to a gun range when the Twitter fight got more heated, and that's why he tweeted the photo of the menacing-looking weapon.

"I didn't threaten anybody. I'm not going out there to shoot anybody," Smith told the website. "People think I'm out here trying to kill, but I have a wife and 3 daughters. I'm trying to feed hungry kids [through my foundation.]"

Fair enough, but with all the bad news that has emanated from the NFL regarding players' guns and domestic violence, perhaps a former player tweeting a photo of his Glock isn't the most constructive move when it comes to a simple Twitter fight.

H/T Deadspin | Photo via Keith Allison/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

The one-hour installments will follow a therapist, Jean Holloway, "who begins to develop dangerous and intimate relationships with the people in her patients' lives," according to a press release.

Gypsy adds to Netflix's growing slate of original series, which will see several new launches in 2016 including Fuller House and Marvel's Luke Cage.

H/T AV Club | Illustration via Max Fleishman