'Single By 30': A YouTube Red series for millennials, by millennials
Editor's note: This is part of a series profiling each new original show or movie debuting on YouTube Red. The subscription streaming service's first slate of originals launched in February.
LOS ANGELES -- YouTube Red has become a destination for premium content by top YouTube creators and geared toward their mostly younger fans.
But Wesley Chan and Philip Wang, the duo behind Wong Fu Productions, are bringing a new type of series to the platform: A millennial romantic comedy.
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Single By 30, which launches on YouTube Red on Wednesday, is about two high school best friends who made “the promise” to marry one another if they were both still single at 30. Flash forward to 12 years later when they see each other again and find out if they're still game to honor the pact.
The premise is certainly different than the average YouTube Red offering such as Scare PewDiePie or Fight of the Living Dead. And that's the whole point.
"There’s a large demographic of YouTube viewers that are millennials like us," said Wang, 31. "I think a lot of people see YouTubers these days as preteens and teens, but there are a lot of adults there... We wanted to make something for them."
Chan and Wang, whose channel has over 2.7 million followers, are UC San Diego roommates who, with their fellow classmate Ted Fu, created Wong Fu Productions
The series was initially developed as part of New Form Digital’s Incubator Series, which mentors and funds digital storytellers as they conceive and produce original pilots. The pilot was so popular that YouTube took notice and greenlit it as a series.
Most of the videos their channel makes focus on relatable stories about relationships.
"We are always looking for these kinds of stories from people's everyday lives," Chan said. "We tend to look at peoples’ conversations and find ways to turn them into videos and in this case, web series."
The idea for this particular show was inspired by Chan's cousin, who once told him about a promise he made with his high school friend about getting married if they were still single.
"The more I talked to my friends I realized they all had similar stories," he said.
Chan personally didn't ever have a marriage pact with a high school friend. But Wang did.
"I wonder if she remembers," he joked.
The eight-episode Single By 30 series is a New Form Digital production that features a diverse cast and a mix of traditional and YouTube talent including Harry Shum Jr. (Glee), Kina Grannis (1.1 million subscribers), Eric Ochoa (over 2 million subscribers), Anna Akana (over 1.5 million subscribers).
Chan and Wang aim for this type of diversity in all their videos, but are especially glad they can showcase it in their first YouTube Red project.
"It’s diverse in type of content offering, but also diverse in its cast, which is also something we're really proud of," Wang said.
Saba was a Los Angeles-based reporter who covers all things digital entertainment, including YouTube, streaming services and digital influencers. Prior to that, she spent two years at the Los Angeles Times covering entertainment for the Calendar and Company Town sections. Saba grew up in Santa Monica and graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in journalism and B.A. in political science. When not reporting, she is usually binge watching shows online or looking for new coffee shops to frequent.
