#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Japan
#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Comedy - Japan
#1 - Most Discussed (This Week) - Comedy - Japan
#6 - Most Discussed (This Month) - Comedy - Japan

(either that, or they're getting pretty sick of a non-Japanese video sitting at the top of their list.)

A commenter deduced that episode 2's astronomical view count can be attributed to the Heather's glorious thumbnail.  While this is undoubtedly true, the "negative" connotations with this claim just aren't fair.

Unlike thumbnail cheaters in the past (people who would randomly insert a picture of a cleavage into a video that has nothing to do with tits) everything about Hostile Environments is legit.  This thumbnail is a legitimate frame of the video.

Yes, "look, boobs!" was intentionally written into the script, but for the obvious reasons:

1) Heather's breasts are fantastic and deserve as much screentime as possible.
2) There are many things that make up a successful video, like it or not, tits are one of those things.  Since the Youtube Rejects have a pair, our choice is to use them/flaunt them.
3) If you have a problem with that, get your own set of boobs to flaunt on in your videos.

Heather puts it best on her channel: "sex sells - i choose to embrace it."

Above all, however, is the idea that Talking Heads is, fundamentally, a new kind of user-generated content for Youtube.  It's a new kind of collab ... one of which that people--judging by all the comments on our first two episodes--simply HAVE NOT seen before.

My goal is to get as many people to see these videos as possible.  Not because of the boobs, not because of that elusive notion of partnership, but because this truly amazing distribution platform is nearly bereft of honestly creative, original, quality content.  People need to see what we're capable of.

People need to see what THEY are capable of.

Talking Heads: YouTube Rejects - 02 - Hostile Environments

... let's get this on a most discussed list.  Respond to ALL COMMENTS.

The episode is doing very well, but I want to see it explode.  You can post about 6 comments before you hit your limit ... just refresh the video page and fill out the CAPTCHA where the comment box should be, then keep going!

(That is, if you have time and you're bored ;)

I'm going to wait to report all of the actual results until we get past major rush (or, you know, after episode two has been up for a week ... that might work, too) but right now I just want to say:

Over 3,200 views in the first 24 hours.

Compare that to the 3,700 views the first episode got in a week.

Mmmmmm ... tasty.

During the height of the original series, we had a fairly decent "an episode a week" schedule for Talking Heads.  Out the gate, the Youtube Rejects series hobbled along to its debut first episode, but mainly it was victim of harsh circumstance inasmuch as that I was attempting to get people productive over the holidays.

Like that's ever gonna happen.

The good news is that we've hit our stride and we've hit it early.  One week after posting our first episode, the second episode is out the door.  I have high hopes for the second episode--whereas the first tricked people into the Talking Heads show, episode two is all heads, all the time.

Here are some interesting details:

1) Episode one of Youtube Rejects is one of the best performing videos on Victor's page in the past 4 weeks.  (Ignoring the one titled "Sex with a Lesbian" cause, I mean, come on ...)  It outpaces his other entries easily by 1-2k views.  Also, as of right now, it's gotten a total of 150 comments.  Not too shabby.

2) Being that the episode was ABOUT her, Heather saw an increase of 166 subs since we posted the episode, one week ago.  Some of those subs no doubt had nothing to do with Talking Heads (she's a rising YT star in her own right), but a fairly good chunk has to be from Talking Heads (130-150).

3) I don't have any numbers from depointless.  Hell, I don't even think depointless has any numbers from depointless.  But we still love him.

4) I saw a modest 40 or so new subs in the past week (and I'm attributing ALL OF THEM to Talking Heads).

5) We haven't bothered tracking any of Victor's subs since he's been actively unsubbing dead accounts to hover at 9,999.  Yeah, I don't know either.

I share these details to mark the general state of affairs as we get ready to launch episode two.  Obviously, I hope that it will far outpace the first episode, and I need to know the metrics from the first to be able to see how well the second does.  If that makes any sense.  New to the fold will be Middlebrook and his guest spot.  As always, he delivered a fantastic performance that should indefinitely have people clicking over and subbing his channel.

So without any further delay, here's where everyone stands this morning in subscription counts, before episode two has been posted:

2/2/09 Subscription Count
1199 - MissPacman08
474 - Depointless
134 - Krumbine
155 - Middlebrook

Stay tuned for updates!