Killer Dinner took the Try Guys into a new era–one where they’re producing “the best shows we’ve ever made”

“Not to be too on the nose, but we like trying new things.”

That’s Zach Kornfeld, founding and core member of the Try Guys. And he’s right–the Guys, now himself and fellow founder Keith Habersberger, have made a decade-plus career out of being open to fresh experiences.

Despite all that practice, there are still big leaps to take. One of those leaps came in May 2024, when the Guys launched their own streaming service, 2nd Try. They knew they had a dedicated fanbase on YouTube, including plenty of people who started following them during their earliest days at BuzzFeed and had joined them when they left the org to make the Try Guys a standalone business. Those fans had shown up to live stage tours, bought merch, subscribed on the Guys’ Patreon (to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars), and more.

But would those fans be willing to open their wallets to watch content off-platform?

The Guys decided to bet that yes, they would. In order to invest in their own streamer, though, and flesh out its content catalog, they needed cash. That’s where Spotter came in.

“As we were building out 2nd Try, getting cash up front allowed us to invest in shows and our talent,” Kornfeld explains. “It allowed us to jumpstart that journey and make stuff that’s deeply resonant to our fans.”

That stuff includes (you guessed it) trying new formats. The Try Guys has always been an unscripted venture, but with Spotter’s funding and the money coming in from 2nd Try, they’ve been able to experiment without worrying about AdSense dropping if fans don’t like tester projects.

“The last couple years have been really wonderful in terms of shows we’ve been making,” Habersberger says. “They’re the best shows we’ve ever made. Unlocking new cast members has allowed us to tell more stories, and expanded the types of stories we can tell.”

The Try Guys’ first plunge into more narrative-driven content was Killer Dinner, a dinner party whodunit that called in the entire cast for a twisty night to figure out who shanked Habersberger. The show is seriously serialized, and leans hard into cliffhangers–something new for the Guys.

He might’ve played a dead body in the series, but Habersberger is very lively when discussing it. He calls Killer Dinner “the best showcase of our cast’s talent to date.”

“It was a totally new thing that we’ve never made before, our pilot season, and we’re really proud,” he says. “The audience loved it, and that project specifically has reinvigorated us about the cool shows we get to make because of 2nd Try.”

Kornfeld adds that with things like the Spotter funding and 2nd Try, “Our primary goal is creative sustainability. We want to make great stuff for as long as possible.”

“We’re really fortunate that we have a passionate fanbase that allows us to make really cool shows,” he goes on. “YouTube is the greatest platform in the world; it allows us to reach an audience and go direct to an audience without network interference. But we’re also lucky to have a place like 2nd Try, where we can have deeper relationships with our audience and a level of predictable revenue.”

Projects like Killer Dinner are “bigger swings, riskier shows,” he says, that “maybe wouldn’t appeal to as wide an audience, but would matter to a more concentrated, passionate group of fans.”

In the case of Killer Dinner, its enthusiastic reception went well beyond a small group of fans. The Guys have already scheduled a second season, and are exploring more narrative-driven concepts. Between now and the end of 2026, they’ll have 11 different properties airing on 2nd Try.

“It’s crazy to say, but in total we make like 250 long-form videos a year,” he says. That being said, the Guys are also pushing into more short-form. Part of the last year, Habersberger says, has involved “looking at which properties work well as short-form expressions, and which don’t.” They’ve also introduced a Samsung FAST channel to further up content distribution.

Development for the rest of this year includes working on a ghost hunting series, more Without a Recipe, and more Eat the Menu. They’ll also keep building out content on their two newer YouTube channels, Try Every Day and Try Guys Game Time, both of which Habersberger describes as places to “do some secret pilot testing in a fun, laid-back environment.”

“As Zach told me earlier, I think 2026 is gonna be a really good year for us,” he says. “We have lots of exciting things throughout the rest of this year, and we look very ahead, so we’re looking forward to 2027 as well.”

Spotter is a Tubefilter partner.