Watcher founders go back on their YouTube exit plan: ‘We messed up’

Watcher founders; Shane, Ryan and Steven apologise for their decision regarding separate streaming platform (Image credit - X)

Shane and Ryan are two names any person with even a slight interest in paranormal content have heard. They are basically the Ed and Lorraine Warren of the 21st century.

The duo started putting out paranormal investigative content on Buzzfeed’s channel in 2016. Their show was called ‘Supernatural and Buzzfeed Unsolved: True Crime’ where they explored reportedly haunting locations and also shared the history and stories behind some of the most terrifying true crime stories.

The channel quickly gained a sizeable following. Everyone loved Shane and Ryan together. Especially because both of them were polar opposite to each other. Shane was a true skeptic and Ryan was a true believer. They used to pick on each other for these qualities and in doing so, they created a lot of memorable content.

In 2020, Shane, Ryan and their third creator, Steven Lim, announced that they will be parting ways with Buzzfeed and launching their own YouTube channel called ‘Watcher’. They launched ‘Watcher’ on January 10, 2020. Since then, their fans have been regularly watching their content on the new YouTube channel. The channel has drawn 2.84 million subscribers.

Shane and Ryan promotional art for channel Watcher (Image credit - Instagram)

On April 19, 2024, the three founders of Watcher Entertainment announced that they will be quitting YouTube for good. They added that Watcher Entertainment will launch a streaming platform of their own where viewers had to pay a subscription fees of $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year.

This announcement did not go over their fanbase smoothly. A lot of people raised concerns over the greed behind this decision. They highlighted the fact that most people do not have enough funds to pay for another subscription and just want to enjoy their content for free.

One fan wrote on X, “You guys are honestly some of my favourite creators on the platform — but with the way *everything* in this country is skyrocketing money-wise, I just can’t justify another subscription service… Hope you guys are all doing okay, but I think this move is a mistake.”

After receiving a lot of backlash from their fans, the three founders uploaded another video on April 22, 2024, titled ‘An update’.

In the video, the trio apologised for the way they made the announcement of their departure from Youtube. They also clarified that their old content will still be available on YouTube. Due to the negative reception of their decision, they have changed the way that they want to execute their plan. The trio explained that they will still be going through with the streaming platform decision but every video posted on that platform will be released on YouTube for free after a month. This way, people who want to get content earlier can subscribe to their platform but it won’t be a necessity since they will upload their content on YouTube too.

The three founders of Watcher, Shane, Ryan and Steven (Image credits - Instagram)

Shane and Ryan are beloved content creators so a lot of fans were sad about their initial announcement. Ever since their updated video has been released, people are understanding where they’re coming from as well.

The Buzzfeed Unsolved creators emphasised the fact that they owe everything to their viewers and that they would be nowhere if it weren’t for them.