If you’re alive in the world right now then you’ve probably noticed that Grace Helbig is having a bit of a moment. She’s the subject of the latest round of YouTube sponsored ads, so her face is plastered across billboards and video displays in every major city, she’s got a new show on E! and that network has been flooding the airwaves with commercials to convince you to watch it, and she’s still the internet’s reigning queen of comedy across social media channels. With all that in your face, you could be forgiven for thinking that all is well in Grace-land, but after a strong start, it appears that The Grace Helbig Show is struggling.
When Helbig’s E! show was first announced, the media was ecstatic. Out of all of YouTube’s many stars, she’s easily the most exportable to television. Despite her huge popularity with teens and tweens, Grace’s comedic sensibility is a bit more grown up than some of her peers. Her penchant for darkish self-effacing comedy lead many, including E! apparently, to hail her as the second coming of Chelsea Handler. Unfortunately the numbers tell a different story.
After a decent-for-E! opening of 227,000 viewers, The Grace Helbig Show spiked to 262,000 for its second episode before falling off a cliff and landing just 182,000 viewers for its third installment. Those aren’t the kind of big numbers that E! was hoping for and it’s a blow to the idea that YouTube stars can be easily translated to TV. Grace’s YouTube numbers are still strong, but despite a big social media push from YouTube, E!, and Grace’s many YouTube-famous friends, her fans still haven’t followed her to TV in a big way.
It’s a tough reality for Helbig given that the show has worked hard to cater to a YouTube audience. Every episode has delivered the kind of vlog-style content that fans have come to expect. Wacky challenges, off-the-cuff humor, and fan interaction over social media have all been a major part of the show’s design. The show has also relied on YouTube-friendly guests like Mamrie Hart, Tyler Oakley, and Miranda Sings alongside more mainstream celebrities like Aisha Tyler and Jim Parsons. Ultimately, this heavy reliance on YouTubers might prove the show’s undoing since YouTube fans seem unwilling to tune in to traditional television and traditional viewers are likely uninterested in unfamiliar web stars.
The situation isn’t hopeless (and it may be too soon to call), but the initial numbers are ominous. Hopefully tonight’s episode, which features Hillary Duff, Glozell Green, and Shane Dawson will be a turning point. The show itself is a strong and funny representation of what YouTube has to offer, and its failure to capture an audience may have more to do with millennial viewing habits than with content. If you’ve been thinking about giving the show a look, tonight’s the night to tune in. E! isn’t likely to tolerate such low numbers for long.
Share this article and let us know what you think of The Grace Helbig Show in the comments below.
I think this was an attempt to bring younger audiences back to tv. It’s no secret that networks are drawing at straws as to how to bring in the younger demographic. Ratings for the past few years show that they are watching less and less TV and more online streaming (Netflix, Hulu, Twitch, YouTube, etc.) and downloadable content. So, I believe this was just a half-hearted attempt to bring those audience back to TV. Well, they tried… And failed miserably…
JuicyStar, Jenna Marbles, Tyler Oakley and now add Grace Helbig to the long list of youtube “stars” who thought they’d become mainstream celebs. Nice try, kids.
Can I be honest? The show was bad. I watched about half of one. The truth is, youtube success will never translate to television success. It’s a totally different medium. Don’t tell me about Justin Bieber, because youtube was just the platform which served to get him noticed by a manager who could do real life things with him. With this dumb Grace show, E! was lazy AF and thought they could just be like ‘oh hey you, girl with 5 million fans…come do THAT on our show so your 5 million viewers will watch E!’ idiots. No. There are millions of people who don’t have cable, they only have internet. Why else would they rely on amateurs for entertainment? The mainstream viewing audience who can afford TV’s and cable are looking for a more sophisticated form of entertainment. Grace could be an actress, in which she can play a PART in a multi million dollar production…but just hoping she did all the heavy lifting and will bring her 5 million “fans” to E!’s TV show was naïve at best of E! to hope for. There’s no short cut, E! You have to invest in “stars” and in the project, then us TV viewers will tune in. Really I have very little patience for “youtube” stars. Take classes, go on auditions, and yeah use youtube as ONE method of honing your craft but don’t count on it. You can get “discovered” by a manager on youtube if you’re good enough and hella lucky, but you don’t become a real celebrity on youtube alone.
this person is supposed to be funny?
i didn’t know pretending to be awkward while being pretty is funny.
come on.
I think Grace is a great comedienne, but I would have preferred if the show went for more of a traditional talk-show setting, instead of some weird hybrid of that and her internet content. It has to be said, though, that the Nieldon system is completely broken.
Of course it failed, no one outside of Youtube cares who she is.
I love Grace and would follow her anywhere but I’ve priced the cable and satellite plans and decided I can’t afford them.
It’s as much the fact that traditional TV has become unwatchable as price for why I’ve abandoned TV cable…
Ironically, I still use cable to access the Internet BUT refuse to pay for and use the stupid cable box. I just got completely disgusted with (un)reality TV’s takeover of television and I used to be a major TV addict!
It’s just not fun to watch anymore and not worth the cost.
I’m absolutely convinced the money aspect of the business and the obsession to capitalize on what’s hot and “in” has destroyed TV completely with these 500-channel cable packages.
I got a LOT more out of TV when it was less than 30 channels and was actually rerunning a lot of old movies and TV shows AND showing new syndicated material. When the multimedia conglomerates bought up the indie, non-network affiliated stations and they all became part of ABC/Disney, CBS/Paramount/Viacom, Fox/whatever, AlphabetSoup/whats-is the quality of the programming became a lot more vapid and unappealing to me.
The funny thing is that the same people who get these ridiculously high salaries or are given the task of programming to grab as much of the US market as possible (a hit show on network is like 12-15million people, CW or Fox would call it a hit at 3-4million; number requirements for hits are a LOT smaller than they were in the late 60s, 70s and 80s) they screw it up because none of these people seem to have any taste and they’re just desperate to see what’ll work. You can’t blame it on these people being old an out of touch (anybody over 35 nowadays) because a bunch of them are in their early 30s and sometimes only mid-20s!
This show seemed like a knock off of Blues Clues aimed at a slightly older audience. I stuck through the first episode as cringe worthy as it was but no way am I going back to it. It’s a shame cause I think she is a pretty funny comedian otherwise.
Is 200,00 viewers good to begin with? Sounds bad to me. Plus it’s on once a week and on Fridays I think? That just spells trouble. Good Riddance. Get Chelsea Handler back stat!
I watched the first episode – well, halfway, and switched the channel. This chick just isn’t funny and tries way too hard. Not surprised the ratings are abysmal.
I agree it was cringeworthy, and I’m a fan of Grace. It’s not so much that she is unfunny, but the scripted manor of the show and the way its made feels far to unnatural. The show has improved, and it is genuinely funny when she is doing unscripted things with her friends, but some of the stuff they have her do is just awkward to watch. Hopefully she can gain more creative control.
There is a HUGE difference between YouTube, and TV. I can watch Grace on YouTube when I want to. When it’s convenient for me. I can watch her few mintue long videos as I please. With TV, you watch at a certain time (unless you really want to DVR it or remember to do it), and on top of that, how many people who are avid YouTuber watchers even have Cable Tv anymore (I don’t), so personally I say this was to be expected. I had high hopes that she would do well, but . . I had a feeling . . it would be a BIG start. . and tapper of quick.
The point of bring YouTubers to TV is to open up an older and less familiar demographic to them. but as it is, this type of humor would only appeal to her inherent fanbase, many of whom don’t even bother to watch TV anymore and probably don’t even have TV like you said. She can’t hold a show on her own, and frankly — and I say this having no ill will towards her — the YouTube-like editing is annoying as heck on TV. It’s almost insulting to older viewers because if content is good, we don’t need a bunch of juvenile bubbly jumpcuts and stupid animation.
No the point of bringing Youtubers to TV is because TV executives think it’s less risky to spend money on someone who already gets millions of views vs. someone new or someone without a fan base.
Whatever… ONE of the reasons, and we see it doesn’t work.