Creator Economy Collective

The business behind content marketing

The main logo for Unpaid Intern, sketched in pencil over a white sheet of notebook paper

Ludwig, “OFFBRAND” Launch “Unpaid Intern”

Ludwig just launched a new YouTube show based on the hit British television show “TaskMaster” titled Unpaid Intern. He has said that the show will air monthly for an unspecified amount of time in recent live streams and videos of his own. Unpaid Intern is in a similar format to his first monthly show “Mogul Money“, where he again invited 4 famous content creators, usually live-streamers, to compete against each other in a “Jeproady” style show, with themes more relevant to content creators, gaming, and the internet.

Thumbnail for Unpaid Intern, featuring Jschlatt on the Left and Ludwig on the right.
Thumbnail for Unpaid Intern, featuring Jschlatt on the Left and Ludwig on the right.

This is a similar case with Unpaid Intern, with the main difference being that most of Unpaid Intern is pre-recorded during three tasks. The pilot episode for Unpaid Intern has two versions you can watch, with a more raw, live cut of the show as it was streamed live, and a more edited down (30 minutes difference in this case) version that took a few days to get out.

The contestants are brought back for the show’s live airing to react to their interactions and mildly edited content, and then compete live for one more challenge at the end to determine the winner. Unpaid Intern is shot in a similar camera style to The Office, but not as scripted as a traditional TV series. The pilot episode for Unpaid Intern features 4 famous guests; Jschlatt, LilyPichu, Daniel Thrasher, and Kyadae. Although I won’t spoil the endings, I will say to make no assumptions about who would perform the best at the given tasks, such as babysitting 3 kids for a time slot or drawing every US state from memory.

Ludwig  on the left as the main host, with Nathan Stanz on the right as a co-host in the main set of Unpaid Intern
Ludwig on the left as the main host, with Nathan Stanz on the right as a co-host in the main set of Unpaid Intern

The set for Unpaid Intern is amazing, especially for a non-traditional gameshow. In Colin & Samir’s recent video with Ludwig, he talked a lot about production for things like Unpaid Intern, and building the set over a year before the video launched. It is set up in a traditional boring office theme, but with some sparkle thrown in from an Amazon stream Ludwig did a while ago, where he told his viewers that he was looking to decorate his actual office in the Mogul Moves headquarters, which was partly a lie. This is no surprise for consistent viewers of his, where he lies to his community to cover up ideas for content, which is a funny running bit in the community.

Nathan Stanz, content creator, co-owner of the production company for Unpaid Intern, OFFBRAND, and the secondary host of the show talked during a live stream about some behind-the-scenes events of the show. Such as having to air out the set for a large chunk of time after contestant Jschlatt shattered a light bulb by using a fire extinguisher on it. Or standing with the children’s parents watching how everyone interacted with the kids. He also added that the main point of Unpaid Intern is to create funny moments and stories, so some of the rules of the show, such as needing to stay in the contestants’ chairs, were broken without a problem because it created highlights for the show.

Jschlatt during the first task, babysitting 3 kids ages between 5-7.
Jschlatt during the first task, babysitting 3 kids ages between 5-7.

Unpaid Intern as a whole is a great concept, although I am a sucker for live-produced content that isn’t heavily edited or scripted like what you would find on cable television. There were some minor audio issues and quips that were the results of failures, like the office pager sounding really horrible for contestant LilyPichu. There were some questionable judging with the points given out, but there wasn’t a prized goal like in a game show such as “Wheel of Fortune” so I didn’t think it mattered too much, and built engagement for Unpaid Intern’s next episode, likely coming in the next week or two (as of March 17th).

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