• Tubefilter
  • Posts
  • Theorist's staff pushes to unionize

Theorist's staff pushes to unionize

Meet BRIDGE Summit's speaker lineup.

November 18, 2025

It's Tuesday and TikTok’s favorite squirrel puppet stole the show at the Zootopia 2 premiere. To be honest, we don’t think there’s anyone we’d rather run into on a red carpet.

Today’s News

  • ✊ Theorist’s staff moves to unionize

  • 🇰🇷 KIMPRO climbs the YouTube rankings

  • 📈 This week on the branded charts…

  • 🎤 Meet BRIDGE Summit’s 2025 speakers

  • 🤝 A creator collects collabs

THE BIZ

Theorist’s staff wants to unionize.

The context: Despite the growing breadth and impact of the creator economy, creators and their support staff are notoriously underprotected in areas like labor and tax laws. Now, however, industry professionals and organizations like the Writers Guild of America West are taking steps to change that.

In April, SAG-AFTRA‘s national board members voted unanimously to create an influencer and digital creator committee. Four months later, several candidates vying for spots on the WGA West board made creator inclusion a key part of their campaign platforms.

Those efforts have yet to result in a unified industry-wide bargaining group for creators. Now, however, WGA West is reportedly organizing with the Motion Picture Editors Guild to establish a single-company group within Theorist, the YouTube production outfit founded by MatPat and Stephanie Patrick and acquired by Lunar X in 2022.

The unionization effort: Per The Hollywood Reporter, WGA West and the MPEG aim to include over two dozen Theorist employees, all of whom edit, write, produce, or work in some other creative capacity for the company’s various channels (i.e. The Game Theorists, The Food Theorists, The Film Theorists, Style Theory, and GTLive).

Writer Daniel Zemke explained that a union at Theorist would "[help] bring the labor movement to YouTube,” as well as allowing unionized employees to negotiate wages, working conditions, and their “voice on the job” (as THR phrased it).

“By unionizing, our goal is to help raise professional standards and bring them in line with the broader entertainment industry. The work we do is real, and it deserves real protection.”

- Nicole Cepeda, Theorist staff member

Theorist reportedly declined to voluntarily recognize the union, but has yet to issue a public statement. Tubefilter reached out for further details.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

  • As South Korea enjoys yet another outsized cultural moment, the country’s most-watched YouTube channel—KIMPRO—has climbed to the top of our latest Global Top 50 ranking with 1.6 billion weekly views. (Tubefilter)

  • Facebook has announced the launch of content protection, a mobile tool that “automatically protects your original reels” and “helps you take action if your work is used without permission.” (Facebook)

  • Google has filed a motion to dismiss a $15 million lawsuit from conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who claims the tech company’s AI inaccurately described him as a white nationalist. (The Verge)

  • OpenAI has reportedly informed employees that they are now permitted to donate eligible equity shares to charity. (The Verge)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top Branded Videos of the Week: MrBeast and MomTube

After sweeping the top three spots in Gospel Stats’ last ranking of most-viewed branded YouTube videos, MrBeast only managed to snag two slots in this week’s Top 5. (We’re using the word “only” very loosely here).

Clearly, it’s not out of the ordinary for MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) to show up multiple times in Gospel Stats’ Weekly Brand Reports. What is unusual, however, is for one of those streaks to be interrupted by another creator. This week, MomTuber Anna Twinsies did just that by sliding into the #2 spot between MrBeast’s latest viral hits.

🥇 #1. MrBeast x Slack: 100 People Vs World’s Biggest Trap (66.4M views)
MrBeast’s latest video challenges 100 contestants to traverse a massive trap room in pursuit of a $100,000 prize. That content is typical fare for MrBeast, but we’re curious what drew the challenge’s sponsor, coworking software Slack, to Donaldson’s audience. Are preteens going to hop in the #hustlegrind channel to network with their cubicle neighbors? Or does a video with tens of millions of views simply reach enough future office workers (and their bosses’ credit cards) that the math still works?

🥈 #2. Anna Twinsies x Levoit: The Levoit cordless vacuum is the ultimate modern witch’s broom, search “levoit vacuum” on Amazon (18.6M views)
Unlike many sponsored Shorts, this video from Anna Brown (aka Anna Twinsies) isn’t just about its sponsor, Levoit. Instead, the MomTuber integrates the advertised vacuum into a full morning vlog that shows off its time-saving capabilities.

🥉 #3. MrBeast 2 x Feastables: The Perfect Caramel Brownie (11.7M views)
MrBeast hasn’t been shy about promoting Feastables ahead of the holidays—and this video is no exception. The #3 Short stars MrBeast collaborator Nolan and culinary YouTuber Nick DiGiovanni, who join forces to demonstrate the versatility of the snack brand’s caramel bars (just in case anyone is looking for a new baking ingredient ahead of Thanksgiving).

Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

EVENTS & HAPPENINGS

Meet BRIDGE Summit’s 400+ speakers: Alexis Ohanian, Idris Elba, Michelle Khare, and more

The big event: Next month, over 60,000 attendees will gather at the ADNEC Centre in Abu Dhabi for the first-ever BRIDGE Summit: a three-day conference designed to unite “the future of media, entertainment, culture, and technology meet[ing] power, policy, and capital on one bridge.”

In partnership with major platforms and brands like Meta, X, LinkedIn, Sony, Canva, Time, and Forbes, BRIDGE Summit will offer panels, roundtables, and masterclasses from over 400 speakers across multiple industries, including the creator economy, technology, marketing, media, gaming, picture/film, and music.

The speakers: While all of BRIDGE Summit’s speakers are accomplished professionals, creatives, and/or policymakers, we wanted to highlight a few with close ties to digital marketing and the creator economy. Those speakers include…

Those interested in attending BRIDGE Summit 2025 can apply here, and those interested in exhibiting can apply here.

FYI: BRIDGE Summit is a Tubefilter partner.

WATCH THIS 👀

Welcome to the YouTube Cinematic Universe

The creator: The MCU may be a bit passé these days, but that cultural drift isn’t stopping Zhong from constructing his own interconnected universe. The creator, whose real name is Zhongni Zhu, has made a major splash on YouTube by combining fan-favorite video formats with star-studded collabs.

While Zhong stars in the majority of his top videos (which frequently revolve around “I Survived…” challenges and ‘this vs. that’ adventures), he also uploads frequent collabs with popular creators like his partner, Kat Buno, and Topper Guild.

The bait-and-switch: Of course, not all of Zhong’s promised creator cameos are everything they’re cracked up to be. The YouTuber has drawn in millions of views by hinting that stars like MrBeast could pop up at any moment in his videos—even when they ultimately make no appearance at all.

Luckily for Zhong, fans don’t seem too pressed about that bait-and-switch tactic. In fact, the creator brought in one million new subscribers during the second full week of November, raising his lifetime total to a whopping 62.7 million subs.

Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter’s audience? Sponsor the newsletter.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.​

Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.