A new comedy series will test the TikTok community’s willingness to pay for premium subscriptions. The mulleted comedian Jericho Mencke is the titular star of Finding Jericho, an interview series on TikTok that can be unlocked with a one-time payment of $4.99.
Finding Jericho is a collaboration between Mencke and Pearpop, which launched in 2020 to enable collaborations between TikTokers. It has since expanded to several other platforms. In this instance, Pearpop will facilitate conversations between Mencke and numerous eccentric characters, including a clown who advertises on Craigslist. The series will consist of eight episodes, with new ones going live each Tuesday and Thursday night on Mencke and Pearpop’s respective TikTok accounts.
What’s most interesting about Finding Jericho, at least from a business perspective, is its distribution model. The first two episodes will be available for free on TikTok Live, but access to the remaining six installments will be restricted to viewers who pay the $4.99 price. Those details reveal Mencke’s new series as an early test of TikTok’s subscriptions, which were unveiled last month. By offering exclusive live-streaming content to fans who pony up for a premium tier, TikTok is looking to adopt the subscription model that has emerged as a lucrative revenue source on Twitch and YouTube.
The tricky part of that plan is figuring out ways to extend the stylings of short-form stars to fit a longer premium format. For Mencke, Finding Jericho is a bit of a departure. The comedian has attracted 1.9 million followers (and high-profile guest stars like MrBeast) by delivering rapid-fire punchlines and absurd non-sequiturs in videos that typically run for a minute or less.
@jercho1 Stayed up past my bedtime tonight😇💪🔥 w/ @MrBeast ♬ original sound – Jericho Mencke
Pearpop was co-founded by Cole Mason, Spencer Markel, and Guy Oseary. “We’re thrilled to see this milestone of launching our first digital series for Pearpop with TikTok and what it will accomplish for the brand,” Mason said in a statement. “I’m so excited about this first-of-a-kind comedy docuseries and proud to show the world what Jericho and Pearpop have created together.”
Mencke is represented by Gersh.
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