What would Sidemen be…without the Sidemen?
Now hang on, don’t worry too much: YouTube’s favorite seven-man supergroup isn’t going anywhere. What they are doing, however, is expanding their production horizons. For the very first time, they’re making shows that won’t feature the Sidemen themselves (that’s KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123, and W2S), but instead their friends and fellow content creators.
The idea for these shows came from two things. First, longtime institution Sidemen Sunday, where a long-form YouTube video featuring all seven Sidemen is uploaded each week. These videos vary in topic, and over time a few fan-favorite themes emerged–along with fan-favorite guest stars.
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And second, the popularity of the Sidemen’s reality competition Inside, which followed 10 influencer contestants competing for a £1 million prize. The premiere episode alone racked up 14 million views on YouTube, and the Sidemen sold the second season to Netflix, with member Vik Barn telling the BBC the Sidemen had hit “the ceiling with YouTube.”
Season 2 went on to become the #3 most-watched production on Netflix globally, and while its ratings did drop off after that, Victor Bengtsson, Managing Director of Sidemen Entertainment, told Deadline the Sidemen still felt like they’d “completely broken the mainstream.”
So, they decided to take that momentum and turn it into two full-fledged, non-Sidemen-starring series on their streaming service Side+.
Viewers can now pay £6.99/month to tune in to Forfeit Footgolf, starring ArthurTV, Bach, Pieface, Weller, George, AB, and Chip, and Blind Dating, starring Samham, Pieface, Marlon, Jakey, Chazza, and Heinz.
“[L]ast year when we created Inside it became clear that with the creative minds of the Sidemen applied to formats we could make really enjoyable content with others outside the core group,” Bengtsson tells Tubefilter. “As we reinvested in Side+ and thought about things we could try, it became a natural thing to look at classic Sidemen Sundays but with some of the boys’ best friends and creators. We wanted the Side+ members to have something new and fresh to look forward to in the second half of the year, so it became a really cool place to test out what something like this could look like.”
Bengtsson says the Sidemen hope these shows can “give creators a chance to meet other creators and see what happens when they come together in a new format–and as a unified group (a bit like the Sidemen setup).”
“As it continues to develop, it can hopefully become a place where any UK creator can come and potentially realize a video idea they had for a long time but didn’t have the chance to make,” he adds.
For now, the Sidemen are focused on producing Forfeit Footgolf and Blind Dating, and want to see what their Side+ viewers think before committing to more shows.
“We’ll listen to the audience and take their feedback on this one and make decisions based on that,” Bengtsson explains. “But of course, we’re hoping to make this into a starting point for more external productions if there’s a want for it. I think entertainment needs some challengers who ask what viewers seek, and we’re absolutely at the forefront of that.”
The Sidemen are far from the first creators to use their success and platform to boost the careers of other makers, but with their digital video omnipresence and increasing reach, they could have a significant impact on the careers of up-and-coming creators in the UK.
