What Ever Happened to CollegeHumor? How the Sketch Comedy Company Reinvented Itself for the New Internet Age (Exclusive)

When Sam Reich purchased CollegeHumor and its streaming service, Dropout, in 2020, he admits to PEOPLE, “No one had any business believing [in] me.”

CollegeHumor was once known for its short-form sketch comedy videos bringing in millions of views on YouTube and Facebook. The company was originally founded in 1999 by then-college freshmen Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen, who grew it from a humor site posting jokes for a college-aged audience to a media brand producing shows and web series on a consistent basis.

The brand was a launching pad for many well-recognized names in comedy, including Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld (of CollegeHumor’s well-loved series Jake and Amir), Brennan Lee Mulligan and Emmy-award-winning SNL writer Sarah Schneider.

But by 2020, CollegeHumor's success had dwindled. The staff had been cut down to just six members, and though Reich claims there were as many as 15 other companies considering purchasing the CollegeHumor brand, he was ultimately able to acquire it for the “low, low price of $0.”

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“I felt, from my naive standpoint, that there was a way to make the company more successful, more sustainable, more quickly,” he says in an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE. “I looked like someone who was just eager to save my job and other jobs. And so I don't think anyone really believed me, but I started to believe myself dangerously.”

Reich announced on Jan. 8, 2020, that he had acquired majority ownership of CH Media and its brands, which included Dropout, Drawfee and Dorkly. In his X thread announcing the acquisition, he pleaded with fans to subscribe to Dropout and give him six months to “save” the various brands under his new creative direction.

“One of the biggest subscription days we ever had is when we announced that CollegeHumor was shutting down and changing hands,” Reich says.

What emerged from the ashes of CollegeHumor has been a success story many other creatives have attempted to replicate in the years since, taking well-loved internet content and adding a subscription paywall to it. Reich says his strategy once at the helm was to focus solely on Dropout, optimizing its content to cater to its niche fanbase and create, what Reich says, “feel like better internet and not worse television.”

Dropout initially launched in 2018, two years before CHMedia was purchased by Reich, with a small selection of shows, with the more recognizable titles being Um, Actually, Dimension 20, Breaking News and the Reich-hosted Game Changer. These shows are led by a cast of improv comedians, leading into the various personalities’ wit and humor over scripted jokes. Its Dungeons and Dragons live-play show, Dimension 20, recently sold out a live performance at Madison Square Garden within an hour of tickets going on sale.

Even those without a Dropout subscription can watch many of the streamer’s most popular clips online. The brand’s TikTok, Instagram and YouTube accounts post individual bits from the show in a social-forward move that continues to attract more viewers.

“[Dropout] really does take advantage of the internet audience,” Reich says. “We give away probably half the content for free on social media. Therefore we think [a healthy amount] about how that show is going to market itself on social media because we depend on that marketing mechanism.”

Reich says “I love TikTok” and admits that some of the streaming service’s fan-favorite shows have been inspired by internet trends. The platform’s show SmartyPants was directly inspired by the viral PowerPoint Parties shared on social media, and Reich says the internet is a continued source of inspiration for the service.

“I love short-form vertical video,” he says. “A 20-year-old in Wisconsin right now can make something funnier and that gets seen by more people than a comedy feature film.”

Reich sees Dropout as a way to help platform creative talents without pipelining them into becoming full-time influencers, an avenue he says is “tough, requires a huge amount of output and a huge amount of engagement with an online audience.”

“I think that the nice part about Dropout is we've created all of this infrastructure so that someone doesn't really have to be a full-time influencer to make a living doing this,” he says — though admits he is constantly looking for new talent online to bring into the company’s fold.

Through this internet-forward strategy, the company has seen continued success. Before announcing the live show at Madison Square Garden, Dimension 20’s largest live audience had been just over 200 people at the Bellhouse in Brooklyn. They’re now expected to fill every seat in the 20,000-person capacity venue on Jan. 24.

“I think that when you're playing for the internet, the audience feels very abstract. And then you arrive at a place where they are physically, and that's when you really get a sense of the Internet's reach and its power,” Reich says.

The CEO attributes much of Dimension 20’s success to Mulligan. Despite also being an executive producer for the series, he says “90% of my job is cheerleader.”

“I feel like I've arrived at the marathon to cheer on a friend, and then it turns out they're winning the marathon,” Reich jokes. “It's so surreal and I think it's gonna be that much more surreal to see [the Dimension 20 cast] come out to 20,000 fans.”

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Despite steering the company to success, Reich says his work is far from done. Selling out Madison Square Garden is a feat many creatives dream of being able to accomplish — but Reich notes he's always looking ahead and finding more ways to make Dropout "more successful than CollegeHumor ever was.”

“We're having to come to terms with our popularity in all sorts of ways. You can't exactly call yourself a niche or a garage band and then sell out Madison Square Garden,” he laughs. “Or if you do, you suddenly have to go, ‘Well, 20,000 people in an arena aren't necessarily interested in seeing a garage band performance.’ You have to answer the needs of your newfound popularity somehow.”

So what did happen to CollegeHumor? Technically, it’s dead. All CHMedia sites were renamed to Dropout in 2023 after Reich felt the streamer’s audience eclipsed that of its founding company. As a high school dropout himself, he feels the name feels very fitting and ditches the “fratty” facade the name CollegeHumor implied — but the brand that has risen in its place has continued to evolve with the ever-changing and torrential landscape of the internet.

“There were quite a few moments where I thought I might be stepping out. And really only in taking over the company and only with Dropout do I feel like we found a version of the company where I can very safely say that there is nothing I would rather be doing with my career,” Reich states. “Who knows how long this will last? But I just can't imagine leaving this to do something else because this is kind of it. It's all I can imagine wanting to do.”

Read the original article on People