As audience interest in late-night talk shows and glossy print magazines dwindles, a group of internet-based series now provides celebrities the platform to promote their newest project and allegedly “reveal” more of themselves. These series use different techniques to produce revelatory moments tailor-made for social media circulation. First We Feast/Complex’s Hot Ones and Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Chicken Shop Date maximize cringe, whether by the guest’s physical pain generated by spicy wings or their interpersonal torment produced by Dimoldenberg’s awkward questioning. Criterion’s Closet Picks and Letterboxd’s Four Favorites underline a celebrity’s taste as they select and defend their favorite films for the respective brands’ cinephilic audiences. Condé Nast’s multiple series (Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector Test, Cast Game Show, and Scene Selection and Vogue’s 73 Questions) adapt magazine feature formats for the short-form video era.

Celebrity appearances on these internet series have not necessarily replaced participation in a Tonight Show bit or a Q&A with The New York Times Magazine. However, the popularity of the series that constitute the new internet press tour reveals an evolving picture of stardom, promotional culture, and audience management, wherein the perceived authenticity of digital creators and influencers is now required of conventional Hollywood celebrities.

While many of these web series have been creating viral moments and racking up views for years, they remain an underexplored topic among scholars. This panel seeks to clarify the series’ position within the media industries (including Hollywood, publishing, and digital creation) and interrogate the series’ role in defining celebrity in the modern attention economy. Possible approaches/topics might include but are not limited to:

• Comparative analyses of segments within the internet talk series ecosystem or a star’s navigation across multiple series
• Surveys of the construction of star personas within the internet talk series format
• Considerations of the internet talk series’ position as social media “content” to be circulated and meme-ified
• Historical perspectives on parallels to internet talk series, from late-night and morning TV to localized press junkets and radio interviews
• Investigations of certain internet series hosts as emergent celebrities with their own personas, audiences, and career trajectories
• Media industries-based explorations of internet talk series as innovations of editorial publishing companies like Complex and Condé Nast
• Examinations of audience and taste related to one or more internet talk series

 Please email proposals, including a title, abstract (200-300 words), 3-5 sources, and a short bio to Cory Barker (barkerc65@gmail.com) by Friday, August 16. Potential panelists will be informed of decisions by Wednesday, August 21.