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Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Hollywood has a star problem. The latest generation of leading men and women are blessed with the kind of beauty, talent and charm that command the public’s adoration. Still, 20-somethings like Zendaya, Paul Mescal and Sydney Sweeney are struggling to open movies based on their name alone. They’re just not famous enough.
You won’t find stars that appeal across generations on YouTube either. Or any other online platform. Can you identify Kai Cenata, the most subscribed esports commentator on Twitch? Or Bella Poarch, who racked up more than three-quarters of a billion views with a single TikTok video? Even Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast), who has over 338 million YouTube followers, could probably trip the average 45-year-old without anyone recognizing him.
The inability to identify new pop culture heroes has long been a signifier of middle age. But there’s usually a point where these stars break through to a wider audience. However, in the past decade, this wider audience has become harder to find. As viewers are directed towards content they will like, fame is dispersed. It is possible to have a hundred million online fans and still be unrecognizable to people in your hometown.
This fragmentation of fame is reinforced by the fact that even viewers on the same platform will not necessarily see the same content. red notice, a heist thriller starring The Rock the most watched movie on Netflix. Still, the film, which one critic described as an empty franchise-building bid, never made it to the top of my recommended viewing list. It’s almost as if the algorithm knew I was going to skip right over.
One online creator is currently trying to jump this hurdle. In December, Donaldson launched his first game show on Amazon Prime. Beast Games will look familiar to anyone who watches his YouTube channel. The stunts, which have the feel of Great Depression-era dance marathons, have just moved to a bigger stage. An extravagant $5 million prize money is being offered to those willing to undergo extraordinary hardships as Donaldson, dressed in a smart casual black hoodie, offers encouragement. The vibe is 2010s The X factor meets tech money.
Reviews of the series were poor (“undignified” and “charmless” according to British newspapers). Its partnership with a fintech company is criticized. There were also disturbing complaints that the environment on set was unsafe – as some contestants claimed in lawsuit against Donaldson and the show’s production companies filed this summer. Still, Donaldson says the show is number one in more than 50 countries.
If anyone can change his audience, it should be Donaldson. Now in his mid-20s, he’s been streaming videos since his early teens and is known for studying formats and tweaking content to increase viewership.
Even so, Amazon is one of the many places to stream. He has over 200 million Prime subscribers (i.e. less than MrBeast has on his channels) and the video service’s recommendation feed may prevent Donaldson from being seen by new audiences who don’t already know him. There is little chance of him becoming a globally recognized superstar.
Screenwriter William Goldman once explained how stars are formed. It was not enough to be talented or handsome, he wrote, something else was needed. IN Adventures in the Screen Tradedescribes how he saw this transition for Robert Redford. When Redford was a stage actor, the rooms didn’t fall silent when he entered. After Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidthey are. A screen and a mass audience were needed for the shift. (He also suggested that the speed of that change, and the fact that it had nothing to do with the actors themselves, was what drove many stars crazy with insecurity.)
The screens are still there. But the mass audience dispersed. The ultimate proof that celebrities are anyone, and thus no one, comes courtesy of celebrity video app Cameo. In late 2024, he launched CameoX — a service that allows users to self-sign up and sell custom videos to fans.
In the past, Cameo had to agree that someone was famous enough to be on the platform. Admittedly, the bar was pretty low. But CameoX drops it on the floor. CEO Steven Galanis says the change had to happen because the amount of fame in the world is “growing exponentially.” That’s true. It’s easier than ever to be seen by a large number of people online. But it is also true that it is harder to be seen by a truly global audience. Without it, there is no glory.
