Variety's 'Strictly Business' podcast features conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment The romantic comedy “Eavesdropping” has all the ingredients of a traditional TV series: recurring characters, serialized storylines and a will-they-or-won’t-they relationship at its center. But you won’t find it on a streaming service or a TV network. Created by Nicolas Alayo, Kaleigh Howland and Christian Sullivan, who also all act in the series, “Eavesdropping” unfolds primarily in episodes just a few minutes long across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Currently in its third season, the series has generated 282 million lifetime views across those platforms, demonstrating the potential for scripted entertainment created specifically for social-video feeds. On the latest episode of Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast, the trio explain how the series emerged from an effort to combine traditional storytelling with lessons Alayo learned working in social-media marketing. Rather than pursuing a conventional Hollywood development process, they intentionally created something inexpensive and nimble enough to produce themselves.
Episodes are constructed to hook viewers quickly while giving them enough information to form opinions about the characters — there’s an active following on Discord where fans share plenty of comments, theories and debates. The creators also discuss the unusual economics of building a scripted series on free social platforms. They also have brand-integration deals and hold live screenings (the next one will be held at the Kult L.A. on Nov. 13), while the creators are exploring licensing opportunities and the possibility of adapting the property into a more traditional format.
Yet they see the accessibility of social video itself as one of the format’s greatest advantages, particularly as Hollywood becomes harder for young creators to break into.
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