SourceFed

Development and launch (2011–12)

SourceFed was an idea Philip DeFranco had been considering as an evolution of his own YouTube channel. In an interview with Forbes, DeFranco stated that he originally wanted to turn his daily show into several daily segments. He added that there was confusion among his audience when this format was tested, convincing DeFranco that he would need to create a new series to not alienate, but grow his audience.

The SourceFed YouTube channel was created in April 2011, and was originally based on a blog of the same name. The channel became defunct shortly afterwards. However, in late 2011, YouTube began its funding of original or premium content channels. DeFranco revealed that he acquired the funding to launch the channel by originally promising YouTube that the channel would be run as a "celebrity gossip channel", and that it would consist of a single show rather than multiple different shows. However, DeFranco negotiated for less funding, in return to have creative control over the channel's content. The funding was provided by YouTube, as the channel was part of YouTube's original content initiative.

Due to DeFranco's position as a YouTube partner, the website offered him funding for an original channel. The channel which he created, SourceFed was one of these channels. The channel was originally produced by James Haffner. DeFranco has stated that he hand-selected the first six hosts of SourceFed: Joe Bereta, Elliott Morgan, Lee Newton, Steve Zaragoza, Trisha Hershberger, and Meg Turney.

The channel launched as an original channel on January 23, 2012. In 2012, Reuters reported that DeFranco had plans to create a news network. Along with the staple show, SourceFed, five additional shows began airing within the first month of the channel's January 2012 launch: Curb Cash, One On One, DeFranco Inc.: Behind the Scenes, Comment Commentary and Bloopers. Curb Cash ended in March 2012. The New Movie Thing Show, a movie review series, and a movie club-style series titled The SourceFed Movie Club were launched in May 2012. Since then, SourceFed has debuted new additions to the channel's lineup. As additional content was being introduced, the SourceFed crew expanded, adding hosts and editors to its team.

Launch year events

On February 6 and April 3, 2012 SourceFed crashed the Maxim Hot 100 voting website. The cause of the crashes were due to Bereta and Morgan telling their audience through 20 Minutes Or Less to vote for Lee Newton as a write-in candidate. Maxim later came out with an article noting that Newton has "list potential". In May 2012, it was announced that Lee Newton placed 57th on the 2012 Maxim Hot 100 list.

In March 2012, Philip DeFranco announced that he would take the SourceFed crew to VidCon 2012. The four hosts (Morgan, Newton, Bereta, and Zaragoza) of 20 Minutes or Less, along with DeFranco, had a Q&A panel and performed at VidCon 2012.

SourceFed hosts Meg Turney and Elliott Morgan, along with Philip DeFranco, presented a series of videos as part of YouTube's "Election Hub" during the 2012 Democratic National Convention and the 2012 Republican National Convention, and joined journalists during live coverage streamed at the end of each night of the conventions. A public relations representative for YouTube stated “Having awesome partners like Philip DeFranco involved will attract younger viewers and he will have a really fresh take on politics". YouTube's "Election Hub" channels for major news networks only received several hundred views, whilst DeFranco's videos on Election Hub received tens of thousands. It was put down to it being in an 'experimental stage'. Most of the partners of Election Hub, excluding DeFranco, Al Jazeera English and BuzzFeed, struggled to garner 1,000 views of their on-demand content during the RNC. During the videos, Turney predicted that the DNC will not make a difference for young voters. During the conventions, SourceFed uploaded videos explaining them. #PDSLive 2012 Election Night Coverage, a five-hour live event hosted by SourceFed and DeFranco, was nominated for a Streamy Award for Best Live Event.

NERD spinoff (2013)

Philip DeFranco later created a spinoff channel, SourceFed Nerd (stylized as SourceFedNERD), which was announced on May 16, 2013. A teaser trailer was released, promising the debut of the channel on May 20. The New Movie Thing Show, The SourceFed Movie Club, and #TableTalk were moved to the NERD channel. The spinoff channel hosted a live version of the #TableTalk series during the YouTube Comedy Week in 2013. The online stream was received well, being successful in terms of both raw viewership, as well as viewer retention.

Under Discovery and Revision3

In June 2013, Philip DeFranco sold SourceFed along with the other channels under his DeFranco Creative portfolio to Revision3. DeFranco also became an executive of Revision3 and the Senior Vice President of Philip DeFranco Networks and Merchandise as a result of the move. DeFranco's sxephil channel, on which he hosted his Philip DeFranco Show (PDS), was already signed under the Revision3 network. Revision3 itself was acquired by Discovery Communications in 2012, which was noted by The Verge to be Discovery's "first major play into the expanding web television [or digital media] market." By the beginning of 2014, Discovery began calling its digital branch by the name Discovery Digital Networks in their company blog.

While discussing the cancellation of SourceFed in 2017, DeFranco detailed that after selling his DeFranco Creative umbrella to Revision3, he began to have less involvement in SourceFed, before having no involvement at all. DeFranco expressed, "for you [long time viewers of SourceFed] who know what the original content was, and what it is now, you know that it's like, it's pretty much a completely different channel—both in content and the people running it." In June 2016, DeFranco made his earliest public clarification that he has "no hands on the creative decisions [made] on [SourceFed]."

During 2013, SourceFed was announced to be a sponsor of that year's VidCon, as well as special guests of the event. The event would be held in August. During the event, the couch featured on Comment Commentary was "eaten" by Sharkzilla, the mascot of Shark Week. DeFranco previously hosted Discovery Channel's Shark Week event. While at VidCon 2013, DeFranco gathered 554 people to play Ninja, a playground game, claiming the amount would be a world record. SourceFed also made appearances at VidCon in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

On September 19, 2013, the SourceFedNERD channel reached 500,000 subscribers. On the NERD channel, several topics relating to nerd culture are covered. When conventions related to the fields of gaming and technology, such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), occur, the channel sends some of its hosting personalities to cover news from the convention. During her time on the channel, Trisha Hershberger was a frequent on-field reporter, as well as generally associated with discussing tech news.

In April 2014, it was announced that Elliott Morgan and Meg Turney would both be leaving SourceFed by the end of the month. DeFranco asked for the cooperation and support of SourceFed fans in relation to the announcements. DeFranco also gave information on the whereabouts of Ross Everett, stating he had been moved back as a writer, as he had not appeared in front of the camera as a host in an unusually long period. They were the first hosts to ever leave SourceFed, something which would occur frequently after their precedent. Morgan and Turney, like the hosts which would leave after them, appeared in other online media promptly after their departures; Morgan would work with Mashable, while Turney would become part of Rooster Teeth's personnel.

On February 27, 2015, SourceFed hosted a live event from YouTube Space LA. The show contained live versions of the weekly recurring shows and spoof bits done by the hosts.

By 2016, Discovery eventually renamed Revision3 and DeFranco Creative as Seeker SourceFed Studios, respectively. Additionally, Seeker's website's about page has SourceFed's properties listed under their ownership. SourceFed Studios encapsulated SourceFed and NERD, as well as The PDS. Additionally, since December 2016, Discovery Digital Networks no longer existed, with all assets being transferred to the new holding company, Group Nine Media, including Philip DeFranco's PDS.

Group Nine Media merger and cancellation (2016–17)

Group Nine Media formed in late 2016, as a Discovery Communications–backed merger between Thrillist Media Group, NowThis Media, and The Dodo with Seeker and SourceFed Studios. Specifically, SourceFed Studios was incorporated into Group Nine Media, which Discovery had a 35% stake in.

On March 20, 2017, the four hosts of SourceFed's primary channel at the time—Ava Gordy, Mike Falzone, Candace Carrizales, and Steven Suptic—released a video addressing the cancellation of SourceFed as well as its SourceFedNERD and People Be Like spinoffs. In the video, they also announced their schedule for the channel's final week; a podcast, a Comment Commentary episode, a usual white wall-styled video, and a live-streamed farewell video were announced for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, respectively. The announcement came as the main SourceFed channel had amassed just over 1.7 million subscribers and 906 million video views in its run.

Discovery had no influence over the closure of SourceFed Studios, nor did Philip DeFranco. The decision to close the SourceFed Studios network was made by Group Nine Media.

The final NERD and People Be Like videos were released on March 24, 2017. SourceFed's final video was also uploaded, which doubled as the intro for the channel's 6 hour final live stream.

Hosting

When the channel launched in 2012, YouTube content creator Joe Bereta of Barats and Bereta, actor Elliott Morgan, and comedian Lee Newton, were introduced as the original three hosts of SourceFed. DeFranco, who hand-selected the three, also appeared as a host for the channel's first two weeks. DeFranco also hand-selected a second batch of three hosts (Trisha Hershberger, and Meg Turney, and Steve Zaragoza) who debuted on the channel in 2012. After the launch of NERD, Bereta, Morgan, and Newton hosted primarily on the main SourceFed news channel, with Hershberger, Turney, and Zaragoza primarily hosting on the NERD channel. All but Zaragoza would eventually leave the channel throughout 2014 and 2015, although Zaragoza would become a part-time host in 2016, opting to focus on sister channel Nuclear Family. However, they would later make guest reappearances on the channel, and Morgan specifically was briefly brought back on the main channel to host The Study.

Ross Everett was introduced as the seventh on-camera host, after spending time as writer for the series. In April 2014, DeFranco announced he was moved back to his writing position. However, near the end of the month, Everett announced his complete departure from SourceFed, in a Tumblr blog post, which had less fanfare surrounded than Morgan's or Turney's departures. Amidst the 2014 departures of Everett, Morgan, and Turney, SourceFed brought on William Haynes, Matt Lieberman, and Reina Scully in March 2014, serving as the de facto replacements for the former. In 2015, all three would later help launch SourceFed sister projects, with Haynes hosting People Be Like (PBL), Lieberman—with fellow SourceFed host Bree Essrig—producing content on Nuclear Family, and Scully joining Steven Suptic in establishing Super Panic Frenzy. While Haynes and Lieberman stayed on with SourceFed through its cancellation, Scully left the company in August 2016.

With Bereta, Hershberger, and Newton's departures in late 2014 and early 2015, new hosts were brought on. On February 24, 2015, Sam Bashor accepted an offer to become an official host on the SourceFed and NERD channels. He was previously a writer for the channels and made several appearances in videos. He was also the host for DeFranco's merchandising branch, ForHumanPeoples, which he would leave to join SourceFed as a host. Early 2015 would also see YouTube personalities Steven Suptic and Bree Essrig, as well as Australian TV & radio host Maude Garrett join SourceFed. While Essrig and Garrett joined Bashor in hosting on SourceFed and NERD, Suptic joined to launch the gaming-focused sister channel, SuperPanicFrenzy (SPF). In addition to Suptic, Scully would also be a presence on SPF.

Early 2016 saw Mike Falzone join the main channel as the host of a revised form of #TableTalk, which was brought back to SourceFed{'}s content output. SPF was shut down in April 2016, causing Suptic to temporarily released from the staff and Scully to return as a host on the NERD channel. In June, Yessica Hernandez-Cruz was introduced as William Haynes' on sister channel People Be Like (PBL). Scully, and additionally Garrett, would later leave NERD in August. Coinciding with their departures, Ava Gordy and Candance Carrizales were brought on in August to host on the main SourceFed channel, while recurring SourceFed guest Whitney Moore, and writer and comedian Filup Molina joined Bashor as full-time hosts on the NERD channel. Suptic was brought back on the staff in September.

SourceFed News

SourceFed was a series where hosts Steve Zaragoza, Matt Lieberman, William Haynes, Bree Essrig, Candace Carrizales, Mike Falzone, Ava Gordy, Steven Suptic, Whitney Moore, Filup Molina, and Sam Bashor present news stories, covering a variety of topics. Episodes of the series are presented in a comedic daily newscast format. Bereta was the head writer for SourceFed. Sam Bashor was also a writer for the series. Due to only presenting five stories a day, stories covered on SourceFed "cross-pollinate", or are influenced by news stories on The Philip DeFranco Show. SourceFed's news stories are also referred to as "white wall" videos. George Watsky's music was commonly used throughout the series in the background.

Notable additional series on main channel

In addition to daily news coverage, SourceFed produces several shows, these include:

2014 celebrity photo leak video

In September 2014, Zaragoza and Newton hosted a news story covering various charities' refusal of donations from Reddit, following the then-recent celebrity nude photo leaks. The video received criticism from the SourceFed fanbase, and according to StatSheep, the channel lost over 20,000 subscribers. Additionally, nude photos claiming to be of Hershberger were leaked onto the internet as part of the hacks that Zaragoza and Newton covered. However, Hershberger quickly debunked the claims, posting pictures of her birthmarks, proving the leaked photos did not feature her.

Following the controversy, Zaragoza posted a message onto his Reddit account defending his stances he presented in the video. DeFranco also took to Reddit, stating that the significant drop in subscribers was either due to "an error of that individual stats website or YouTube removing dead accounts." Additionally, in response to requests or demands in favor of removing or firing any hosts, DeFranco stated, "No. I let SourceFed control their own creative." The video has slightly more dislikes than likes.

2016 Hillary Clinton video

In June 2016, SourceFed uploaded a video titled Did Google Manipulate Search for Hillary?, discussing whether or not Google manipulated search results to display Hillary Clinton in an untruthful positive light. At the time, Clinton was the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Matt Lieberman, the host for the video, suggested that Google's autofill feature pulls up results for Clinton's crime reform, despite "hillary clinton crime" being a more popular search term than "Hillary Clinton crime reform". During the video, Lieberman stated, "Thanks to the help of our editor Spencer Reed, SourceFed has discovered that Google has been actively altering search recommendations in favor of Hillary Clinton's campaign so quietly that we were unable to see it for what it was until today." Lieberman went on to claim that "The intention is clear: Google is burying potential searches for terms that could have hurt Hillary Clinton in the primary elections over the past several months."

The video attracted considerably more media attention than other SourceFed uploads, as it was referred to in posts by USA Today, The Washington Times, Business Insider, and The Globe and Mail, among other outlets. Shane Dingman, writing for The Globe and Mail opined that "This conspiracy theory post is not typical fare for comedy-focused SourceFed to offer its 1.7 million subscribers." Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times wrote that the "conspiracy theory [about Google suppressing negative news in search results about Hillary Clinton] began with a video from the online outlet SourceFed that went viral this year, and quickly garnered headlines on conservative news sites like Breitbart and Infowars."

Additionally, the video's claims also drew responses from Google, Donald Trump (the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for President of United States), and SourceFed's creator, Philip DeFranco. Trump stated that if SourceFed's claims were true, "it is a disgrace that Google would do that." DeFranco accounted that many of his fans wanted to know his thoughts on the video, due to his past ties with SourceFed. In his response, he clarified that he had no creative control on the channel's uploads, and went on to say that the video's claims were "potentially concerning," adding "I think and I'm hoping that there's a non-nefarious explanation, [...] personally, I would love to hear from Google if they would issue a statement on this." Google did indeed respond, defending its search engine; one representative of the company stated "Google Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause. Claims to the contrary simply misunderstand how Autocomplete works. Our Autocomplete algorithm will not show a predicted query that is offensive or disparaging when displayed in conjunction with a person's name." Matt Cutts, Google's former head of their web spam team, called the video's claims "simply false." Cutts also reported that SourceFed did not reach out to Google prior to uploading their video.

Reception

On May 26, 2012, the SourceFed YouTube channel reached the 100 million video view milestone. From May to December 2012, Deadline Hollywood tracked the weekly views of all the original premium channels on YouTube. The channel was consistently one of the top original channels every week. On August 1, 2012, SourceFed became the first of the YouTube original channels to reach 500,000 subscribers. In celebration of the event, 20 Minutes or Less uploaded a special video onto SourceFed that featured clips of SourceFed's audience congratulating them and stating the reason that they subscribed to the channel. SourceFed is one of the most popular YouTube original channels, as the channel earns over 20 million monthly views and has a Slate Score of 736. The Wall Street Journal noted that it was hard to figure out why the simplicity of the idea behind SourceFed has been able to receive mass appeal. However, due to its success, SourceFed was among the 30-40% of original channels to be renewed by YouTube in November 2012. The Nerd spinoff channel hosted a live #TableTalk event during YouTube Comedy Week in 2013, which received over 41,000 streams. On July 14, 2013, the SourceFed channel reached one million subscribers.

SourceFed was nominated for four awards at the 3rd Streamy Awards, winning in the Audience Choice for Series of the Year category. After winning the Streamy Audience Choice Award for Series of the Year, SourceFed was criticized; The Atlantic criticized an episode of The New Movie Thing Show, and went on to comment, "The audience pick for series of the year went to SourceFed, which consists of short clips of people explaining things in loud, fast voices," and "It's not even close to quality programming. Just something goofy to watch online." The following year, SourceFed won the award for News and Current Events Series, but losing for the Audience Choice award they had won the year before.