Streamy Awards honor YouTube stars and online video creators
The Oscars of online video are almost here.
The ninth annual Streamy Awards will be livestreamed exclusively on YouTube on Friday from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, starting at 8 p.m. EST.
The awards ceremony -- which was founded in 2010 by Drew Baldwin and Joshua Cohen -- honors online video creators who produce all kinds of content on a variety of platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Buzzfeed and other media outlets.
Unlike past years, this year the Streamys won’t have a host in order to make the show less about one person and more about a “collection of collaborative moments of the community at large,” executive producer Ariel Elazar told FOX Business.
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“This also allows us to be able to collaborate with a diverse group of creators that are going to bring a lot of their creativeness to the show,” Elazar said.
The Try Guys hosting the 2018 Streamy Awards. The four hosts have been nominated for "Show of the Year" this year. (Dick Clark Productions)
Executive producer Michael Nieporent told FOX Business that this kind of partnership between the collaborators and the show’s producers is a new step.
“We’re really excited to see where that takes the show,” Nieporent said.
More than 50 awards will be given out at the Streamys under various categories, according to the website.
Those categories include overall awards, awards for series, awards under specific categories -- including fashion, food, health and wellness and sports -- awards for craft -- such as costume design, writing and editing -- and two “Audience Choice” awards, for “Creator of the Year” and “Show of the Year.”
This year, comedian Lilly Singh and talent show judge David Dobrik are competing against eight other nominees for the “Audience Choice: Creator of the Year” award.
But Dobrik isn’t only up for “Creator of the Year” -- he was also nominated in 10 other categories, making him the most nominated person at the ceremony, according to a press release from earlier this year.
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According to Nieporent, the “Show of the Year” award is one of the most exciting categories for this year’s show.
“I think it’s one of the best groups of nominees we’ve ever had for the category,” he said. “It’s kind of cliche to say, but each one of them really does deserve to win and I think it’ll be interesting to see who the fans vote for this year.”
Among the 10 nominees are comedy talk show “Good Mythical Morning," comedy series “The Try Guys” and Jada Pinkett Smith’s talk show, “Red Table Talk.”
Other nominees in various categories include singer Lizzo, comedian Jack Black and rapper Lil Nas X.
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While the “Audience Choice” awards are voted for by fans, the other nominees and winners are chosen by “an independent judging body of creators, executives and other experts in the online video industry across a wide variety of platforms,” according to the release.
Aside from the main Streamy Awards, there are also Streamy Brand Awards -- to “honor brand advertising innovation" -- and The Purpose Awards -- to recognize people and organizations that make a difference in their communities, according to the website.
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“The Streamys have grown tremendously over the past nine years,” Nieporent said. “The show has become the most significant achievement a creator can earn for their work in online video … [and] has become the must-watch entertainment event of the year for fans and creators in online video.”
The ceremony is produced by Dick Clark Productions in partnership with YouTube -- which is owned by Google -- and online video news website Tubefilter.
