Dropout’s Emmys Surprise: ‘Game Changer’ and ‘Very Important People’ Enter 11 Categories as Vic Michaelis Joins Lead Comedy Actress Race

I'm not sure everyone understands that this is an article about Emmy *submissions*.

The Daily Show is a good example of this. Jon Stewart is a better journalist than most “real” journalists.

Vehicular Manslaughter being at the top

She is... quite the mime! oui

Great show! I thought the season built on itself really well. I was way more into it by the last episode.

Yeah, over 7 million people watched the Emmys live last year, and obviously a lot more looked at the nominations. Not only would it be a lot of publicity for Dropout, but if even a tiny fraction looked into what it is and subscribed, that'd be a win. (Though, I'm not overly optimistic on Emmy voters being willing to recognize Dropout.)

Yeah, that’s why I caveat it by saying as long as they don’t spend an insane amount of money on this, it’s probably good business. I’d just maybe try to run her in talk show host if they can swing that (or even just the show) in a far more likely spot to be nominated

And even just getting coverage of the campaign in Variety doesn't have zero ROI. It forces some of the old-school parts of the industry to take Dropout much more seriously as a player doing stuff worthy of being reported about. Even if they are kinda B-Tier and they aren't winning awards, just a few years ago College Humor really wasn't even on the radar as an entity that would soon be able to stage a credible awards campaign and be taken seriously.

There’s a 0% chance they get a best comedic actress nomination. The only chance they maybe have of getting a nomination is for best game show, but I wouldn’t bet on it. This article only really exists because Sam Reich is a rich nepo baby with connections who will do favors for them.

I think there's something smart in Dropout being willing to do stuff that is weird enough to get a rabid fanbase but not click with others. It's a very different strategy from the classic broadcast network "something for everyone" safe approach that makes pretty bland stuff. Personally I don't get the D20 hype, and I'm not that big on Make Some Noise, but I am one of the people that VIP clicks with. Sam's happy to take my money every month as long as there's one or two show's I can't get anywhere else. Since it's not advertising based, he doesn't make any extra money if you watch VIP or I watch D20.

I don't care for most episodes, but episode 3x3, "Archimedes and Ollie", was great. And 1x6, "Tommy Shriggly", has its moments.

love VIP but IMO Comedy Bang Bang the TV show executed this concept better

It's hit or miss and the new season feels really miss for me. The Season 1 stuff felt pretty funny with my favorites being the Alien and the Host's Grandmother. But then after that and the latest season in particular felt like it was all about the costumes as you said and I didn't really find it funny.

Look, I love dropout. Make some noise can be hysterical and Game Changer can be legitimately *brilliant*. But the thing about every single show basically just being improv, is that 1/1000 people are decent at improv. Even on dropout, not everybody is that funny. There are people who will go on make some noise or game changers that will get one forceful exhale out of my nose per episode, if they're lucky. And even among their heavy hitters- and they have some of the most brilliant naturally funny people I have ever seen- they're still going to have their sketches where something just doesn't really work that well. And a little too often, VIP makes a full episode out of a single bit by one of those not-that-funny people, or a funny person doing a bit that just doesn't really work that well. A few of them were good. It is great up against the garbage on youtube, but to put VIP up against other great pre-written tv comedies is silly. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think it's strategic because you really can't come up with that many *great* female-driven comedies in 2026. I can think of many actresses in comedies that amazingly outshine Vic in VIP (and I love Vic, she's hilarious in make some noise)... just not many this or last year. Although Kaitlin Olson should take it over her any day for sunny. My point being that they probably recognize the comedic drought and think they might have a faint shot of just getting nominated, which would be a great promo for them.

I didn’t really get that one. Gamechanger is funny but VIP is just… I’m not really sure what it is?

Yeah the first few episodes were funny but it started to taper off a little bit. I haven't even watched any of the recent ones.

I wish they would skip the whole setup at the start and just go straight into the interview.

In a lot of ways, the makeup/costuming portion reminds me a lot of Face Off, which was a competition reality TV show about Makeup Artists (not to be confused with Face/Off, the Nic Cage movie). I really enjoy the behind the scenes bits where they talk to the makeup artists about the costuming.

I'm just a baby....

Very unsubtle bribery, basically. For Your Consideration campaigns are mostly spending money on gifts for the voters, throwing them lavish parties or "networking events", hiring PR teams to help run them, and paying money to trades to give them shout outs (like this article itself).

Sam let it go that he spent something ridiculous campaigning for it. I think he said 50k but I don't remember for certain

VIP, season 1. the Florida teenage beauty queen episode. chefs kiss

A guest (Izzy Roland) once said "is vehicular Manslaughter your full name?" and that really stuck

Ooh, that's another point off for referring to someone as anything other than 'Daddy'.

I just wanna THROW IT AWAYYYYY!

thankyou!

so excited to see her and jacob!

Ex-Portlander here and die hard Dropout/Vic fan and I'm so jealous. Went to Viva Mas Vegas (D20 live) and it was amazing.

WAIT WHAT?? THEY'RE DOING A SHOW IN PORTLAND TONIGHT??

and?

No Comedy Bang Bang? Pfffft

Can attest to their social media game. That’s how I became aware of VIP, Make Some Noise (shout out to the Noise Boys), and Game Changer. When I devoured everything they posted, I had absolutely no problem paying like $7 bucks a month for it to see more (and there is soooo much more). So, yeah… it worked!

Yeah, as someone who doesn’t watch D20, it’s still super value for the price they charge.

They need shows that aren’t just short form improv games

It seems like there aren't that many bc the Dimension 20 brand releases a ton of content and episodes are hours long. It's like all just by comparison

>How many more shows do they need? I'd say they need a few more big shows. I'm a huge Dropout fan, but Make Some Noise, Game Changer, and Very Important people are just leaps and bounds better than anything else they produce. Crowd Control has a lot of potential, but it's super rough around the edges in its first season. The show needs to be restructured, and they need to be less heavy handed in the editing. The rest of their slate feels like glorified YouTube content. Parlor Room, in particular, was a bit disappointing for a new series since it's really basic nerd content that countless YouTube channels have done. A lot of their content strikes me as quick/c**** to produce to keep people subscribed when their main draws aren't in rotation and relies on people being familiar with the Dropout cast/mainstays and wanting to see more of them. I'm excited to see their slate for the rest of the year and into next year. Jacob Wysocki has his travel show which has a lot of potential and they're going to be shifting into scripted and animated content. There's a lot of potential to grow the platform. As is, it's still fairly niche.

Listing it out there are some I like that I forgot about like smarty-pants. I guess I just recently was feeling a drought and haven't been turning it on as much. I'll dig more into the new stand up, maybe that's an area I haven't gone deep enough into.

They just need to keep going. I'm not like I'm threatening to drop my sub. But the quality of shows being generated recently is, in my opinion, much better than the ones previously.