The Brief: The eighth annual Streamy Awards, a celebration of digital content creators was broadcast live on YouTube from Los Angeles on October 22, 2018.

DEEP DIVE
The Try Guys hosted this night of comedy, positivity, and scripted spontaneity at The Beverly Hilton. In advance of the airing of the Streamys, 24 award winners were announced including Ninja for gaming, The Phillip DeFranco Show for news, and James Charles for beauty. Awards categories included “Show of the Year,” “Best Breakout Creator,” and “Dog of the Year.” Celebrities, past winners, YouTube stars, and influencers presented the awards to each other.
The theme of the night was “Be. Create. Inspire.” Although the YouTube community typically thrives on beef, the Streamys were relatively drama-free, with the exception of some comedic drama performed by the hosts.
Unlike the Oscars or the Grammy’s, The Streamys are a smaller and more casual event. Just as YouTube does, The Streamy’s showcases a diverse set of talented creators, celebrating more young and quirky talent than old-school Hollywood does.
Most Streamy winners are selected by the Streamys Blue Ribbon Panel, “a judging body of creators, executives, and other experts in the online video industry.” The exceptions were Show of the Year and Creator of the Year, which were fan-selected.
Notable Winners:
- Show of the Year: The Try Guys
- Creator of the Year: Shane Dawson
- Breakout Creator: Emma Chamberlain
- Ensemble Cast: David’s Vlog
- Comedy: Brandon Rogers
- Actor in a Comedy: Liza Koshy
- Comedy Series: Liza on Demand by Liza Koshy
- First Person: David Dobrik
- Food: Worth It
- Science/Education: Marques Brownlee
- Documentary: The Truth About Tanacon by Shane Dawson
- Pop Culture: Vogue’s 73 Questions
Memorable Moments:
- Several presenters and winners including Liza Koshy used their time onstage to urge viewers, fans, and fellow creators to vote in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.
- Superstar Charo handed out the trophies to the night’s winners.
- A number of glamorous drag queens were in attendance and onstage including Katya Zamolodchikova and Trixie Mattel from Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Eugene Lee Yang of The Try Guys spent the night in drag as the queen Cheyenne Pepper.
- When she presented the award for Pop Culture, the robot-like YouTuber, Poppy, led Try Guy Zach Kornfeld onstage on a leash, like a dog.
- The Try Guys staged a KSI vs. Logan Paul-inspired boxing match, but instead of throwing punches, they hurled compliments at each other.
- In a skit, Keith Habersberger (one of the Try Guys) went rogue backstage, hijacking the stream to create an alternative to The Streamys “The Keithy’s.” Chaos ensued and Keith ultimately broke down in tears, comforted by Tana Mongeau. This bit was a parody of Tanacon and Shane Dawson’s docu-series about it.
- The show ended with an appearance from R&B singer Montell Jordan, who performed a Streamys-themed version of his hit “This Is How We Do It.”
Although The Streamys featured online creators who can amass millions of views in a day, the show had only around 42,000 real-time viewers during its Monday night airing. Hundreds of thousands of more views have accumulated since The Streamys aired, on both the full-length video and on shorter clips.