These days, in the U.S., it’s nearly impossible to watch TV shows like Entertainment Tonight (on CBS) or Access Hollywood (on NBC) unless you’re next to a 12-year-old. Why? Because adults likely wouldn’t know who the reporters are interviewing or who the TV hosts are talking about. With the proliferation of influencers and Social Media stars, the entertainment world has been invaded by so many transient personalities that only teenagers can keep track of them.
Teens the world over see many of these personalities as real “celebrities” — even if they’re just funny-looking folks posting videos of themselves dancing on TikTok. There is even a business model developed around this seemingly strange phenomenon: TV hosts invite Social Media celebrities onto their shows specifically so that said “celebs” promote the shows to their millions of followers online. This symbiotic relationship also allows the Social Media stars to expand into the OTT universe, thereby increasing their reach and getting them more sponsorships.
In the past, the generational divide was between those who could understand (and laugh) at the antics of John Cleese in Monty Python’s Flying Circus and those who simply didn’t get why anything he was doing would be considered funny. But at least everyone in a given family knew who Cleese was. Today, the divide is as wide as the Red Sea. Even The Wall Street Journal recently acknowledged, “Scores of online personalities enjoy status among children, yet most parents have no idea who they are, why they are famous or even how to watch them.”
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