Michelle Khare has mastered taekwondo, muscled by way of police academy and conquered Houdini’s deadliest trick. However now comes a unique form of problem for the favored daredevil: proving to the Hollywood institution that Emmy-worthy content material arises from YouTube.
The host, recognized for her on-line actuality collection “Challenge Accepted,” is a part of a bunch of YouTube creators with huge followings, producing high-caliber content material, who’re vying for Primetime Emmy Awards this yr.
Though she received’t have to enlist the assistance of an Olympian or prepare for months this time round, she’s taking the problem head-on. However whereas she’s been on the awards marketing campaign, Khare stated her high precedence is letting her movies converse for themselves.
To that finish, she’s taken on some high-profile challenges currently, together with stunning Tom Cruise on the premiere of “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.” She acquired in by donning a masks a la the spy franchise, whipping it off for the large reveal. And he or she teased the method of coaching to tackle Cruise’s notorious stunt of hanging off a aircraft because it’s taking off.
The video has garnered 769,000 views.
“My primary concern constantly is, ‘Is the show we’re making worth a nomination?’ and it needs to be, always,” she stated.
Having a creator win an Emmy can be yet one more milestone in YouTube’s quest for world dominance.
Folks now spend extra time watching YouTube on TV screens than viewing subscription-based streaming providers like Netflix and Prime Video, in response to information from Nielsen. On common, there are greater than 20 million movies uploaded each day to YouTube, in response to the corporate.
Google-owned YouTube’s income final yr was estimated to be $54.2 billion, which might make it the second-largest media firm behind Walt Disney Co., in response to a current report from analysis agency MoffettNathanson.
Creators self-submitted for the awards, and YouTube has been supporting their campaigns to carry consciousness to their content material and sway Emmy voters. The creators and YouTube are collectively contributing to the campaigns. It doesn’t matter what occurs when nominations are introduced Tuesday, this yr’s push is a very long time coming.
Conventional studios and networks have substantial budgets devoted to awards campaigns as a result of the trophies and the glamour of awards season will not be simply superficial. A serious nomination or award serves as a sign of top of the range and legitimacy. That will be all of the extra significant for on-line creators, who’ve historically been seen as on the outskirts of Hollywood.
For the person creators and their corporations, the funding within the Emmys race might result in new or extra fruitful relationships with advertisers and sponsors. The status recognition might additionally open the door for various alternatives for creators, like Lilly Singh’s late-night stint or MrBeast’s competitors collection on Prime Video.
Khare stated when she met with YouTube Chief Govt Neal Mohan shortly after he was appointed in 2023, he requested her what the corporate might do for her. Serving to a creator earn an Emmy was her request, she stated.
“If it’s not me on July 15, if it’s anybody else, if it’s this year, next year, 10 years from now, I can’t wait,” she stated.
Khare, who’s hoping for a nomination within the hosted nonfiction collection class, is in good firm with two different YouTube reveals within the working for awards this yr.
“Good Mythical Morning,” a each day present hosted by YouTube personalities Rhett McLaughlin and Hyperlink Neal, and Sean Evans’ speak present “Hot Ones,” the place celeb visitors eat progressively spicier rooster wings, are additionally eligible for Emmys. Final yr, “My Next Guest With David Letterman and John Mulaney,” an “Only Murders in the Building” aftershow and “The Daily Show” received within the respective classes these YouTubers are hoping for a spot in.
“There’s a reason traditional Hollywood cares about awards,” Khare stated. “It attracts the crew who want to work on [the show]. It attracts the audience to bring viewership, and it also attracts advertisers to financially support and make the show continually sustainable, in addition to all of the other wonderful publicity things that it does to elevate us into this world against legacy television.”
Khare stated she at all times needed to work in tv and gained expertise at legacy studios earlier than becoming a member of BuzzFeed, which she referred to as “paid graduate school for content creation.”
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Occasions)
In a 2024 visitor column for the Hollywood Reporter, Mohan wrote that YouTube creators will not be simply vlogging from their bedrooms. They’ve writers’ rooms, manufacturing groups and enterprise methods. Mohan wrote that the Tv Academy recognizing creators wouldn’t “detract from its storied history” however moderately make sure the group is forward-looking.
“In order to maintain its relevance and emerge a leader in the digital age of entertainment, the Emmys should celebrate all kinds of content, especially the creators whose storytelling is pushing culture forward,” he wrote.
A 2025 report from the Tv Academy launched in February reveals the members skew older. About 50% of the physique reported their age, and of that group, roughly 68% are age 41 or older.
A lot of the problem in these creators’ quests to get nominated for or win an Emmy Award is ensuring voters are acquainted with their YouTube content material. Though they every appeal to hundreds of thousands of viewers, Hollywood‘s more old-school folks might not have come across their videos before the awards push began.
Khare, who said she had always wanted to work in television, started off interning at legacy studios before she took on a role as a video producer for BuzzFeed in its heyday. She said her experience making YouTube videos for the media company was like going to “paid graduate school for content creation.” At the same time, she was “moonlighting” as a professional cyclist, she said.
Creating “Challenge Accepted,” where she often undertakes incredible physical tasks, was a marriage of her love for video content and athletics. And the extreme stunts she’s in a position to pull off make her notably adept at getting consideration on-line. Coaching like an Olympic boxer, for instance. Or studying easy methods to take hits like a superhero stunt performer.
Past what creators are doing and contributing to the campaigns themselves, YouTube is supporting the push for Emmys, most visibly by internet hosting its first formal For Your Consideration, or FYC, occasion in coordination with the Tv Academy.
Greater than a decade in the past, Bernie Su received an Emmy for a YouTube collection he labored on. So far as he’s conscious, his 2013 win marked the primary time “the word YouTube has ever appeared on the trophy,” Su stated. He went on to win two extra Emmys, one for an additional YouTube collection and one for a Twitch collection.
The class for his YouTube wins, recognizing artistic achievement in interactive media for an authentic interactive program, is judged by panels of trade professionals, moderately than by standard vote.
However Su stated his highway to win the Emmys appeared very completely different than the creators within the race as we speak. YouTube wasn’t even conscious he and his group have been submitting their collection for Emmy consideration in 2013, he stated.
Nonetheless, Su stated he’s rooting for Khare and the opposite creators within the working this yr, particularly since he’s seen firsthand how an Emmy Award helps to legitimize digital-native work.
“My parents are very much all about the three Emmy wins when they talk about their son,” he stated. “Not about anything else. It starts there. That’s the nexus of the work that I do.”
YouTube declined to share how a lot cash the corporate has spent to help the campaigns this yr. Angela Courtin, a YouTube government who’s helming the awards push, stated the corporate is counting on “existing commitments” like billboard house and activations at movie festivals to spotlight the Emmy contenders.
“When they decided that they wanted to be seen among their peers equally, then it became our responsibility and our opportunity, as well as our privilege, to collaborate with them to do so,” Courtin stated. “At the end of the day, the award sits on their mantle, not ours. It will never be in my office.”
Evans, left, Khare, McLaughlin and Neal every spoke to Tv Academy members about their reveals at YouTube’s For Your Consideration occasion in Might.
(Araya Doheny / Getty Photos for YouTube)
Providing this type of help to creators serves YouTube too.
Past the advantages of recognition as a severe participant within the conventional tv world, and the potential enhance in promoting {dollars} flowing to the corporate, YouTube placing each financial and figurative weight behind creators is a worthwhile funding, stated Jeremy Goldman, senior director of briefings at eMarketer. In spite of everything, YouTube doesn’t need to lose extra of its expertise roster to Instagram Reels and TikTok.
“YouTube creators can take their ideas elsewhere,” Goldman stated. “The more you support them, the more likely they are to go to YouTube for future endeavors, which has been very valuable for YouTube, because it’s basically people creating [intellectual property].”
Brian Flanagan, the president of Legendary, the studio based by YouTubers Rhett and Hyperlink, stated looking for awards recognition will not be about ego however about acknowledging the many individuals behind “Good Mythical Morning” and the opposite reveals Legendary makes that draw audiences within the hundreds of thousands.
“GMM” is eligible within the class honoring short-form comedy, drama or selection collection. Latest winners embody “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” and “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson.”
Legendary can also be aware of the enterprise implications of a significant award nomination or win.
“If you want to seek premium advertising, top-flight guests and other trappings of the best of the best of Hollywood television, it could really be a distinguishing mark, and we’d be excited to have that stamp on us,” Flanagan stated.
Evans, who’s vying for recognition within the speak collection class with the likes of Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, instructed The Occasions in June that he feels “Hot Ones” needs to be within the combine with these conventional tv mainstays.
“I didn’t know that we’d be a part of the conversation, never dreamed of it,” he stated. “But now that we are, I’ll say with my full chest that we belong.”
Khare would even be coming into a storied class with legendary previous winners like Anthony Bourdain and David Letterman. That prospect, maybe unsurprisingly given her document of daunting feats, doesn’t intimidate her.
The checklist of previous winners on this class and different tv stars who’ve impressed Khare’s work are largely males. “I would love to inspire young women to go out and be great too,” she stated.
Regardless of the powerful odds of securing not solely a nomination however taking pictures for a win in a aggressive discipline, Khare stays optimistic about her probabilities.
“Conan O’Brien, I’m coming for you,” she quipped.
