MrBeast won the top award, creator of the year, at the YouTube Streamy Awards for the second year in a row. The show, which streamed on YouTube on Saturday (Dec. 11) was a lighter-than-air celebration of the year’s online content and creators.
Bretman Rock took show of the year and unscripted series for “30 Days With: Bretman Rock.”
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Larray was billed as master of ceremonies – a curiously formal, old-school title for a show that had a distinctly young vibe. “Party host” was more like it. Larray was joined by Issa, described in a press release as his best friend. The two openly gay guys had an easy rapport as they rode a double-decker bus around Los Angeles, hand-delivering Streamys to selected winners.
The show featured two musical performances. Måneskin offered their hit remake of The Four Seasons’ “Beggin,” one of the year’s most striking rock singles. Ari Lennox performed her sexy R&B hit “Pressure.” Lennox also submitted to a brief interview in which she said that Tyler, the Creator would be her dream collaborator.
The show featured creators Addison Rae, Anthony Padilla, Bella Poarch, Brent Rivera, Bretman Rock, Jarvis Johnson, Jeff Wittek, Lexi Rivera, and Tinx, all of whom made special appearances on the Streamys bus with Larray and Issa.
2020’s breakout creator winner Charli D’Amelio presented the award in that category to 2021 winner Bella Poarch.
This show’s smartest move was the return of Streamys Creator Honors, in which past Streamys winners honor creators whose work resonated with them. This created genuine interactions, in which more established online personalities gave a hand up to emerging talent. LaurDIY honored Remi Cruz, Mark Rober honored Jeremy Fielding, who he dubbed the “Mister Rogers of engineering YouTube,” Bailey Sarian saluted vlogger-commentator Swoop, and author-podcaster Jay Shetty lauded Amelie Zilber for using her platform to have impactful conversations about bullying, universal healthcare, gun violence, and body image.
MrBeast and #TeamSeas were highlighted in a special segment to showcase the work the YouTube community has been doing to remove trash from bodies of water around the world. (Even featherweight shows like this like to show that they’re aware of real-life problems.)
There were 10 nominees for both creator of the year and show of the year, which may be the only thing this breezy show has in common with the Oscars (where there will be 10 nominees for best picture starting next year), the Grammys (where there will be 10 nominees in each of the Big Four categories starting next year) and the Latin Grammys (where there have been 10 nominees in each of the Big Four categories since 2012).
Actually, the Streamys do have a few of things in common with those higher-stakes shows. Here, too, there are upsets, as when “30 Days With: Bretman Rock” beat “Verzuz” for show of the year. (That buzzy Instagram hit did win for live show.)
And, as at the Grammys, only a fraction of the categories are presented on the show.
And it has big-name stars who are no-shows. Will Smith, who won the crossover award, didn’t participate in the show. Jimmy Kimmel shared a “social good” award with Mark Rober for “NEXT for AUTISM – Color the Spectrum Live,” but the late-night talk-show host also didn’t participate.
The nine other nominees for creator of the year were Addison Rae, Alexa Rivera, Avani Gregg, Bella Poarch, Brent Rivera, Charli D’Amelio, Dixie D’Amelio, Dream and Emma Chamberlain.
The show also featured Streamys Premieres, where creators debuted sneak peeks of videos ahead of posting them to their YouTube channels. Creators doing this included Dixie D’Amelio, Lexi Rivera, RDCWorld, Safiya Nygaard, and ZHC.
The 2021 YouTube Streamy Awards is produced by MRC Live & Alternative and Tubefilter. For more information, visit www.streamys.org.
The show is available for on demand streaming on YouTube.
Here is the full list of winners in all 47 categories.
The 2021 YouTube Streamy Awards is produced by MRC Live & Alternative, which is owned by MRC. MRC and Penske Media are co-parent companies of Billboard.
