Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

YouTube is making its own Bandersnatch-style interactive shows

Chris Gates
By

A day before Netflix launched its second high-profile choose-your-own-adventure-style project, the Bear Grylls survival series You vs. Wild, reports surfaced that YouTube is opening its own unit dedicated to developing original interactive programming.

The new division will be guided by Ben Relles, who previously oversaw YouTube’s unscripted programming, Bloomberg reports. According to Bloomberg, Relles recently started the job, and is still trying to figure out the best way to implement branching narratives on the YouTube platform. No actual titles have been announced, although the new department will allegedly produce both pre-filmed content and “live events.”

Recommended Videos

The Google-owned video giant is just the latest company to jump on the interactive media trend, which kicked into high gear after Netflix launched Black Mirror: Bandersnatch in December 2018. Following Bandersnatch‘s massive success, Netflix announced that it will be doubling down on interactive movies and TV shows. You vs. Wild arrives on Netflix on April 10. Future projects could include romance stories or screwball comedies.

Related

Netflix and YouTube aren’t the only players in this game, either. An official Choose Your Own Adventure movie, which will let audience members vote on how the story ends, has been in the works at Fox since 2017, although it’s not clear if that film is still on the slate following Fox’s sale to Disney. In addition, Walmart has invested $250 million into a deal with Eko in an attempt to make interactive content like toy catalogs and cooking shows.

Bloomberg claims that YouTube’s new interactive media initiative comes as part of a larger revamp of the company’s original programming plans, which will see YouTube focusing less on expensive scripted series and more on cheaper content like reality shows, In addition, YouTube Premium will move from a subscription service to an ad-supported one.

Google denies that its original programming is taking a hit, but admits that ads are the future of YouTube Premium, while high-profile projects like Origin and Overthinking With Kat and June have already been cancelled. On the plus side, the rest of YouTube’s content, like those music videos and kids’ cartoons that you love to watch so much, don’t seem to be going anywhere.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Chris Gates
Chris Gates
Contributor
Christopher Gates lives in Los Angeles, CA and writes about movies, TV, video games, and other pop culture curiosities. In…
Max is now available to watch on YouTube Primetime Channels
Max on YouTube Primetime Channels as seen on an iPhone.

Max — the streaming service that houses all the shows and movies from the combined Warner Bros. Discovery universe — is now available to watch in full on YouTube. Or, rather, on YouTube Primetime Channels.

That's the somewhat clunky name for the scheme by which you can watch subscription services from within YouTube itself. It's exactly the same idea as what's going on with NFL Sunday Ticket. You subscribe and watch on YouTube and pay via your Google account. It's also pretty much the exact same thing as Max on Amazon Prime Channels. But unlike the Amazon options, only one flavor of Max is available on YouTube PrimeTime Channels. You'll get the full version, sans advertising, for $16 a month. (It rounds up to a little more than $18 a month after taxes.)

Read more
The best cooking videos on YouTube (December 2023)
Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen flipping something in a pan.

It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole of cooking videos on YouTube. From funny ones to useful videos, celebrity chefs, and amateurs, the best cooking videos on YouTube run the gamut. If you’re curious to learn the basics or improve your skills in the culinary arts, YouTube has you covered.

We have scoured the video-sharing site and found some of the best cooking videos you can watch on YouTube. Curl up with a cup of hot cocoa, a beer, or a glass of wine and prepare to be entertained. When you’re done and ready to invest more time, check out the best free movies on YouTube right now.
Gordon Ramsay’s Thanksgiving Recipe Guide
Gordon Ramsay's Thanksgiving Recipe Guide

Read more
YouTuber gets more than just clicks for deliberately crashing plane
YouTuber Trevor Jacob jumps from his plane shortly before it crashes.

YouTuber Trevor Jacob jumps from his plane shortly before it crashes. Trevor Jacob/YouTube

It was two years ago when YouTuber Trevor Jacob posted a dramatic video of his solo flight that ended with the plane crashing, though not before he jumped out of the single-engine aircraft to parachute to safety.

Read more