If you have spent any time on Youtube it has probably become pretty obvious that the videos that end up trending and getting lots of views are ones that talk about drama.
Why are these kinds of videos so popular? The main reason is that in todays culture people are attracted to “controversy”, especially if it evolves celebrities. On Social media there are influencers who are micro-celebrities to their followers and if they don’t get along with another youtuber than it becomes a topic of discussion.
The key to using drama for views is to do something or say something offensive, then people will react to the bad behavior which leads to the influencer creating an “apology video” that is then shared and talked about in mainstream media.
These types of drama channels will cover the mishaps and mistakes of famous people. Interestingly enough everyone has an opinion. The simplest benefit of getting viewers talking about what someone has done is to capture attention.
This attention is important for keeping the celebrity relevant in the Youtube algorithm, the more people who engage, connect and share the video the higher the value of that content becomes, even if people are criticizing or saying they don’t agree with what the person has done in the past or currently.
There are plenty of examples of this type of controversy in Hollywood among actors and musicians. Anytime one of them gets into trouble and it makes the national headlines, the person becomes more popular. Youtubers have figured out how to use that same formula to get recognized online.
Manufactured drama is a method used to gain subscribers and to get followers on social media. The more people who talk about the actions of a popular video influencer the more advertising gets seen by a large group of viewers leads to more money for the video creators.