Chapter 208. Reaction to "Star Family"
The YouTube video began with the scene shown in the preview - an awkward silence between Son Jin-yuk and Jung Soo-yeon who had arrived first at the restaurant during their preliminary meeting.
The small camera installed on the table alternated between showing their faces, and a caption reading 'awkward awkward' appeared during the silence between them.
Naturally, the attention of the actors and staff watching in the conference room turned to Son Jin-yuk and Jung Soo-yeon.
Son Jin-yuk scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression.
"...Why is everyone staring like that? It couldn't be helped. That was my first time talking to Soo-yeon."
Everyone smiled and turned their attention back to the screen.
PD Joo Hyun-seok apparently had no intention of reusing scenes from the preview, quickly transitioning and summarizing the preliminary restaurant meeting in about ten seconds.
Then, with impressive editing techniques, he briefly revealed events from their two-day camping trip, building anticipation.
Watching the screen, CEO Jung Hyuk nodded with satisfaction.
'As expected, PD Joo Hyun-seok really is the industry's top talent. With editing skills like this and such a star-studded cast being released on YouTube, fans must be going crazy. No, not just fans, but regular viewers will increase too.'
CEO Jung Hyuk whispered to Kong Min-jung sitting next to him.
"Min-jung. How many subscribers does our channel have right now?"
"We passed 1.7 million this morning. The last time I checked before the show aired it was 1.73 million, but I can't predict how much it will grow after this broadcast ends."
Jung Hyuk nodded as he looked at Kong Min-jung answering with confidence.
'Indeed, anything done with passion yields better results.'
CEO Jung Hyuk was of course aware that Kong Min-jung had connections with Yeon-woo from his first YouTube appearance on 'Fan Search'.
That's why he had assigned her to plan their own content, and being a fan, her claim that 'innovative planning' was embodied in actor Ryu Yeon-woo's very existence was quite novel.
'If I had been in charge of planning new content, I probably would have tried something unnecessarily different just to appear unique.'
Jung Hyuk smiled with satisfaction as he looked at Kong Min-jung.
Looking back now, while an entertainment company creating its own YouTube content was already innovative in itself, if they had tried to make the planning innovative too, it probably wouldn't have succeeded.
Following Kong Min-jung's suggestion during the planning phase to use the most proven variety show format, what's known as the 'familiar taste,' proved effective.
While Jung Hyuk was analyzing the format, the show's content had moved from the members' initial small talk upon gathering on departure day to games played in the car after setting off.
CEO Jung Hyuk checked the real-time comment reactions while watching the show.
- Pupu (7 mins ago): What is this lolll Is he Sherlock Holmes? How does he know about cyanide antidotes
- Dr. Brown (6 mins ago): Passing chemistry major here, first time hearing this
└ GoingToMars (6 mins ago): Are you really a major? Sodium nitrite is in tons of processed meats
└ Dr. Brown (5 mins ago): First time hearing it's a cyanide antidote, have you eaten cyanide?
- LIA KIM (6 mins ago): Quiz carry wtf
- CheeseFry (6 mins ago): Ryu Yeon-woo being an actor might be academia's great loss
└ FirstLast (2 mins ago): Which field?
└ CheeseFry (37 secs ago): Any field really
- TsumugiChan (5 mins ago): I was a sage in another world but reincarnated as an actor here?
└ Hawawa (3 mins ago): Regarding being blessed with Luck 999 by the goddess after saving the world
└ Suzuki Makoto (15 secs ago): What are you talking about, weeb
Meanwhile, Yeon-woo, who was also checking the comment reactions like Jung Hyuk, narrowed his eyes.
'Reincarnation, actor, saving the world? These comments seem like they know something... Looking at the IDs, they seem to be Japanese. Hmm, I should investigate this when I have time.'
While Yeon-woo became suspicious of the wrong thing, the innocent otaku were about to face investigation from professional agents who could even stand against the NIS.
Meanwhile, viewers who watched the YouTube video started sharing the link with their friends.
- Kim Se-ha: Has anyone seen this [Link]
- Lee Ji-woo: Nope, what is it?
- Lee Sung-hyun: Ah lol I already saw it~ It's better than TV variety shows these days
- Kim Se-ha: PD Joo Hyun-seok made it! His reputation must be why they could cast such actors, the cast is amazing
- Lee Sung-hyun: Wouldn't it be the opposite? Those actors are all from Star Entertainment, maybe Joo Hyun-seok agreed to do it because the casting was so good even though it's YouTube?
As word of mouth spread and more viewers flocked in, YouTube's algorithm also started promoting "Star Family."
As subscribers and real-time viewers increased, viewers watching the live stream burst into laughter when the song guessing game started after they arrived at the lodging, following the quizzes and simple mini-games.
The live broadcast chat was flooded with laughter.
- Jisoo: LOL I get uncle Jung Cheol-min but how does Ryu Yeon-woo not know any of them?
- Octopus Bread: How does he know scientific terms and cyanide antidotes but not know Lataz's "Together" lololol
- Grape Soda: Right, Together was #1 for quite a while too
In the playing video, Yeon-woo and Jung Cheol-min were still struggling with the ongoing song questions.
Then the final question played, and finally Yeon-woo stood up with a triumphant face and got the answer right.
- This is the title track, right? Axis's "Universe."
- Team Beyond Garam. Correct!
Dong-ha and the Axis members watching the broadcast at the dorm cheered.
"That's our Senior Yeon-woo for you!"
"What's with that way of talking. Hey, let's leave a comment from our official account."
"Oh should we? But don't we need permission from the company?"
"Come on, we don't need permission just to leave one comment. We've been around long enough."
At Jae-won's words, Dong-ha nodded and typed:
- Axis ♪ (1 second ago): Wow!! We're truly honored that you got our song right.
Then other subscribers who saw the comment started replying and hitting like.
- Why are the oppas showing up here?
- It's really them
- Up up up
Following that, other YouTube channels that had been hesitating also started leaving comments.
While Axis might have left their comment out of pure gratitude, YouTube is fundamentally a battlefield to secure even just a few more subscribers.
If there's a video gaining popularity in real-time, it's only natural to try to get a piece of the action.
- Wreckerman: Is this lineup for real..? It's like a Korea Arts Award level cast
- Farm World: If you come film at our farm next time, we'll provide unlimited duck meat!
- JNBC Ent: We're still waiting for Summer's Closet Season 2. The wait continues.
Even broadcast station official channels joined in leaving comments, and as individuals started sharing in various group chats, numerous conversation topics started snowballing into one.
Kong Min-jung checked the subscriber count as this week's release was nearing its end.
And she couldn't believe her eyes.
Even though the video wasn't over yet, Kong Min-jung exclaimed:
"Our channel just passed 2 million subscribers in real-time!"
At those words, everyone in the room was shocked.
"Huh? Weren't we just over 1.7 million when the variety show was released? How is this possible in such a short time?"
"But we haven't received our Silver and Gold buttons yet, right?"
"This is crazy. 2 million."
Yeon-woo also knew about the buttons that YouTube sends out.
'The next one would be the Diamond button for 10 million subscribers, right?'
Looking around, everyone seemed encouraged by the clearly measurable achievement.
'Well, the previous hits were actually achieved at LN, and Star has only established the company without any real achievements yet.'
Of course, all employees knew that their signed actors were incredibly prestigious.
However, Star Entertainment and Star Media hadn't yet produced any signature works under their names, and while they had signed CF contracts, they hadn't actually filmed anything yet, so there were no activities to showcase.
Yeon-woo looked around and raised his voice.
"Since we've come this far, let's keep running the YouTube channel with new content and aim for the Diamond button!"
The employees who heard Yeon-woo's words shouted together.
"Diamond button!"
"Let's go!"
Actually, it felt a bit strange for everyone to chant 'Diamond button' since Star was an actor agency, not a YouTube channel.
However, since Star was both a talent agency and a media content production company, their YouTube channel would become increasingly influential as time went on, given that it was a powerful tool for directly delivering their self-produced content.
'The era of one-way communication dominated by broadcasting stations is coming to an end.'
Ironically, LN's most successful works weren't the drama that achieved exceptional ratings on a general programming channel, nor the movie that drew 10 million domestic viewers.
'Rather, it was the non-mainstream works that achieved the greatest success.'
The low-budget independent film "Sketch" was one such example, as was the Korean fantasy "White Blood" that had an exclusive contract with Netflix.
While Yeon-woo was lost in thought, the variety show moved on to the scene before bedtime.
Then PD Joo started calling members one by one secretly to his room.
While Yeon-woo was conducting an airborne operation with Han Hae-woon to receive the snow chains and report, the production team was preparing the bedtime mission.
While he was outside memorizing and burning the report, the other members were being called to PD Joo's room one by one to receive items.
In the footage, PD Joo gave Han Byul a car air freshener and said:
- Now, I'll be giving each of you 'car-related items,' and you must keep them intact until tomorrow without other members finding out in order to get breakfast.
Han Byul received the car air freshener and panicked.
- What do I do? Where should I hide this?!
- That's something Miss Han Byul needs to figure out herself.
Han Byul quickly came out, looked around, and then went into the bathroom.
She placed it next to the air freshener in the bathroom, disguising it as an item that originally belonged to the lodging, and walked out with awkward steps.
While other members had assumed the snow chains Yeon-woo brought from somewhere would be the mission item, Yeon-woo was finally called to the production team's room after burning the report in the bonfire.
Watching that scene, the actors in the conference room shook their heads.
"I was certain those snow chains were it."
When Son Jin-yuk said this, Jung Cheol-min nodded.
"Since the theme was car items and he suddenly brought snow chains from somewhere, I thought so too."
But what Yeon-woo received from PD Joo was a 'Hi-Pass card'.
- Hmm? This is small and thin, so it should be easy to hide.
At Yeon-woo's words, PD Joo shook his head.
- The items other members received aren't that big either. Since it says Hi-Pass on the card, if you're caught, there'll be no way out.
- But if I put it in my wallet...
- Putting it in your wallet is forbidden.
- Oh no...
When Yeon-woo opened the door and came out, the members who had already received their missions were waiting in front of the door.
Watching that scene, Yeon-woo nodded as he recalled the past.
'Hmm, since I received it last and everyone was waiting, I knew I'd be searched as soon as I went out, so I was wondering what to do.'
Immediately, Son Jin-yuk and Jung Cheol-min rushed to search Yeon-woo's body.
And at the scene that followed, the staff and actors in the conference room, as well as viewers nationwide watching the broadcast, couldn't believe their eyes.
Even the actors were the same, as they didn't know how Yeon-woo had hidden it while filming, even though they were now watching the edited content.
"What was that...? He hid it like that?"