E!’s post about YouTubers sends teens into meltdown mode

August 18, 2015
Aaron Polmeer

By Jordan Valinsky

E! is feeling bruis(E!)d by a bunch of teenagers.

Yesterday, the cable network sent teens into meltdown mode over a shady story questioning who and why Internet celebrities were appearing at the Teen Choice Awards on Sunday.

The listicle in question is titled “18 Moments from the 2015 Teen Choice Awards That Made Us Feel Super Old.” Intended to be a playful post asking who this throng of crop-top wearing celebrities were. Teens interpreted it as an ignorant and overly oblivious.

The offending articles asked why a “Choice Viner” award existed and belittled categories that included well-known YouTubers such as Felix Kjellberg (a.k.a. PewDiePew).

All valid questions, but perhaps the author should’ve used Google before igniting an flamewar that was fueled by YouTube star Tyler Oakley:

It was all downhill from there. Oakley’s 4.5 million followers rolled their collective eyes and dragged E! for writing the “appalling” and “rude” post. For example:

Prominent Internet celebrities also joined in:

Noticing the hurricane of hate-tweets, E! responded with the tea-sipping frog meme noting they gave YouTuber Grace Helbig her own show, hopefully proving they’re not that ignorant of digital culture.

Helbig’s cheaply produced show was never a ratings success for E!, showing how difficult it is for old media to replicate the success of new media. The few people that did watch it let it be known by responding to E!’s tweet:

E! responded to Oakley’s jab by using the #StraightOutta meme:

It doesn’t look like E! will be giving Oakley his show anytime soon.

Still, as the Daily Dot points out, E!’s ignorance of Internet personalities might draw attention but it’s not winning them over any fans: A recent survey shows that “YouTube stars are more recognizable to teen audiences than mainstream movie stars,” which are the network’s bread-and-butter.

Sadly for the teens, their request to get E!’s social media manager fired didn’t work since the tweets are drawing traffic to the website:

We’ve reached out to him for comment. If anything, at least E!’s tweets on the topic provided the world with a brief reprieve from seeing anything about the Kardashians.

Photo via YouTube/Screenshot.

The post E!’s post about YouTubers sends teens into meltdown mode appeared first on Digiday.

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