Why The Valleyfolk Will Be the Biggest Thing on YouTube in 2018

It's often hard for a new channel to stick out on YouTube. YouTube's algorithm tends to cater to their bigger channels, so it's difficult for a new up and coming channel to find their footing. The Valleyfolk managed to buck that trend in a big way. Within the first 24 hours of their new channel, The Valleyfolk have over ninety-three thousand subscribers, made it to #4 on YouTube's trending page, and have almost 3,500 backers on their Patreon. So what is this channel and how did it become so successful so quickly?

The Valleyfolk's introduction video gives you a small sense of what this channel is going to be about. At its core, it's going to be a weekly YouTube show as well as a podcast, but it doesn't stop there. According to The Valleyfolk's Patreon, "it's not a sketch channel. It's not even just a channel. It's far more ambitious: it's an opportunity for us to work with one another, and others, to bring you first a weekly show and a podcast, and then whatever the heck else we (and you!) want. We believe that when it comes to entertainment, we are the best team for the job, so consider this our hail Mary job application."

So why was this channel immediately successful? A weekly show and a podcast is certainly not a unique concept, so why did The Valleyfolk take off while other similar channels haven't? Plain and simple, it's the cast. The Valleyfolk is a channel made up of YouTube personalities, Joe Bereta, Elliott Morgan, Lee Newton, Steve Zaragoza. If those names look familiar to you, it might be because you recognize them from a channel called SourceFed.

A quick recap for those who aren't familiar with SourceFed. SourceFed was an idea Philip DeFranco had been considering as an evolution of his own YouTube channel. The original plan was to turn his daily show into several daily segments. After some back and forth with YouTube, the channel was finally funded and produced. When the channel launched in 2012, YouTube content creator Joe Bereta of Barats and Bereta, actor Elliott Morgan, and comedian Lee Newton, were introduced as the original three hosts of SourceFed, and soon after three more hosts were added, Steve Zaragoza, Trisha Hershberger, and Meg Turney. As the years went on, 5 of the original hosts left to move on to other projects, while Steve pulled back to a part-time role so he could focus on other things as well. SourceFed was sold off to Discovery Communications and they eventually canceled SourceFed on March 24, 2017.

Now that SourceFed is over, the core four are together making content again. If you ever watched the four of them together on SourceFed, you know why almost a hundred thousand people subscribed within the first day. The chemistry between Elliott, Joe, Lee, and Steve is unlike anything else on YouTube. Philip DeFranco even went as far as to call them "easily the four most talented people I have ever worked with." You can see the chemistry and excitement between the four of them in the announcement video. If you go through old SourceFed videos you will find hours upon hours of content of them playing seamlessly well off each other. One of the most popular segments on SourceFed was Comment Commentary. Comment Commentary was a show where at the end of the week the hosts read and responded to comments on their daily videos. The reason Comment Commentary was so popular was that it was completely unscripted. Elliott, Joe, Lee, and Steve are at their best when they are improvising. This Comment Commentary from March of 2013 is a fan favorite because it featured four hosts instead of the usual three. That video is 10 minutes of unscripted madness and it's absolutely perfect.

This is why The Valleyfolk will take off in 2018, because no matter what format they use, no matter how often they produce content, no matter how big their budget is, as long as Elliott, Joe, Lee, and Steve are working on something together, it's going to be funny and people are going to watch it.

If you haven't already you can subscribe to their channel here, and support them on their Patreon here.