Michelle Khare has mastered taekwondo, muscled through police academy and conquered Houdini’s deadliest trick. But now comes a different kind of challenge for the popular daredevil: proving to the Hollywood establishment that Emmy-worthy content arises from YouTube.
The host, known for her online reality series “Challenge Accepted,” is part of a group of YouTube creators with massive followings, producing high-caliber content, who are vying for Primetime Emmy Awards this year.
Although she won’t need to enlist the help of an Olympian or train for months this time around, she’s taking the challenge head-on. But while she’s been on the awards campaign, Khare said her top priority is letting her videos speak for themselves.
To that end, she’s taken on some high-profile challenges lately, including surprising Tom Cruise at the premiere of “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.” She got in by donning a mask a la the spy franchise, whipping it off for the big reveal. And she teased the process of training to take on Cruise’s infamous stunt of hanging off a plane as it’s taking off.
The video has garnered 769,000 views.
“My primary concern constantly is, ‘Is the show we’re making worth a nomination?’ and it needs to be, always,” she said.
Having a creator win an Emmy would be yet another milestone in YouTube’s quest for global dominance.
People now spend more time watching YouTube on TV screens than viewing subscription-based streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video, according to data from Nielsen. On average, there are more than 20 million videos uploaded daily to YouTube, according to the company.
Google-owned YouTube’s revenue last year was estimated to be $54.2 billion, which would make it the second-largest media company behind Walt Disney Co., according to a recent report from research firm MoffettNathanson.
Creators self-submitted for the awards, and YouTube has been supporting their campaigns to bring awareness to their content and sway Emmy voters. The creators and YouTube are jointly contributing to the campaigns. No matter what happens when nominations are announced Tuesday, this year’s push is a long time coming.
Traditional studios and networks have substantial budgets dedicated to awards campaigns because the trophies and the glamour of awards season are not just superficial. A major nomination or award serves as a signal of high quality and legitimacy. That would be all the more meaningful for online creators, who have traditionally been seen as on the outskirts of Hollywood.
For the individual creators and their companies, the investment in the Emmys race could lead to new or more fruitful relationships with advertisers and sponsors. The prestige recognition could also open the door for different opportunities for creators, like Lilly Singh’s late-night stint or MrBeast’s competition series on Prime Video.
Khare said when she met with YouTube Chief Executive Neal Mohan shortly after he was appointed in 2023, he asked her what the company could do for her. Helping a creator earn an Emmy was her request, she said.
“If it’s not me on July 15, if it’s anybody else, if it’s this year, next year, 10 years from now, I can’t wait,” she said.
Khare, who is hoping for a nomination in the hosted nonfiction series category, is in good company with two other YouTube shows in the running for awards this year.
“Good Mythical Morning,” a daily show hosted by YouTube personalities Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, and Sean Evans’ talk show “Hot Ones,” where celebrity guests eat progressively spicier chicken wings, are also eligible for Emmys. Last year, “My Next Guest With David Letterman and John Mulaney,” an “Only Murders in the Building” aftershow and “The Daily Show” won in the respective categories these YouTubers are hoping for a spot in.
“There’s a reason traditional Hollywood cares about awards,” Khare said. “It attracts the crew who want to work on [the show]. It attracts the audience to bring viewership, and it also attracts advertisers to financially support and make the show continually sustainable, in addition to all of the other wonderful publicity things that it does to elevate us into this world against legacy television.”
In a 2024 guest column for the Hollywood Reporter, Mohan wrote that YouTube creators are not just vlogging from their bedrooms. They have writers’ rooms, production teams and business strategies. Mohan wrote that the Television Academy recognizing creators wouldn’t “detract from its storied history” but rather ensure the group is forward-looking.
“In order to maintain its relevance and emerge a leader in the digital age of entertainment, the Emmys should celebrate all kinds of content, especially the creators whose storytelling is pushing culture forward,” he wrote.
A 2025 report from the Television Academy released in February shows the members skew older. About 50% of the body reported their age, and of that group, roughly 68% are age 41 or older.
Much of the challenge in these creators’ quests to get nominated for or win an Emmy Award is making sure voters are familiar with their YouTube content. Although they each attract millions of viewers, Hollywood‘s more old-school folks might not have come across their videos before the awards push began.
Khare, who said she had always wanted to work in television, started off interning at legacy studios before she took on a role as a video producer for BuzzFeed in its heyday. She said her experience making YouTube videos for the media company was like going to “paid graduate school for content creation.” At the same time, she was “moonlighting” as a professional cyclist, she said.
Creating “Challenge Accepted,” where she often undertakes incredible physical tasks, was a marriage of her love for video content and athletics. And the extreme stunts she’s able to pull off make her particularly adept at getting attention online. Training like an Olympic boxer, for example. Or learning how to take hits like a superhero stunt performer.
Beyond what creators are doing and contributing to the campaigns themselves, YouTube is supporting the push for Emmys, most visibly by hosting its first formal For Your Consideration, or FYC, event in coordination with the Television Academy.
More than a decade ago, Bernie Su won an Emmy for a YouTube series he worked on. As far as he’s aware, his 2013 win marked the first time “the word YouTube has ever appeared on the trophy,” Su said. He went on to win two more Emmys, one for another YouTube series and one for a Twitch series.
The category for his YouTube wins, recognizing creative achievement in interactive media for an original interactive program, is judged by panels of industry professionals, rather than by popular vote.
But Su said his road to win the Emmys looked very different than the creators in the race today. YouTube wasn’t even aware he and his team were submitting their series for Emmy consideration in 2013, he said.
Still, Su said he’s rooting for Khare and the other creators in the running this year, especially since he’s seen firsthand how an Emmy Award helps to legitimize digital-native work.
“My parents are very much all about the three Emmy wins when they talk about their son,” he said. “Not about anything else. It starts there. That’s the nexus of the work that I do.”
YouTube declined to share how much money the company has spent to support the campaigns this year. Angela Courtin, a YouTube executive who’s helming the awards push, said the company is relying on “existing commitments” like billboard space and activations at film festivals to highlight the Emmy contenders.
“When they decided that they wanted to be seen among their peers equally, then it became our responsibility and our opportunity, as well as our privilege, to collaborate with them to do so,” Courtin said. “At the end of the day, the award sits on their mantle, not ours. It will never be in my office.”
Offering this kind of support to creators serves YouTube too.
Beyond the benefits of recognition as a serious player in the traditional television world, and the potential boost in advertising dollars flowing to the company, YouTube putting both monetary and figurative weight behind creators is a worthwhile investment, said Jeremy Goldman, senior director of briefings at eMarketer. After all, YouTube doesn’t want to lose more of its talent roster to Instagram Reels and TikTok.
“YouTube creators can take their ideas elsewhere,” Goldman said. “The more you support them, the more likely they are to go to YouTube for future endeavors, which has been very valuable for YouTube, because it’s basically people creating [intellectual property].”
Brian Flanagan, the president of Mythical, the studio founded by YouTubers Rhett and Link, said seeking awards recognition is not about ego but about acknowledging the many people behind “Good Mythical Morning” and the other shows Mythical makes that draw audiences in the millions.
“GMM” is eligible in the category honoring short-form comedy, drama or variety series. Recent winners include “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” and “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson.”
Mythical is also acutely aware of the business implications of a major award nomination or win.
“If you want to seek premium advertising, top-flight guests and other trappings of the best of the best of Hollywood television, it could really be a distinguishing mark, and we’d be excited to have that stamp on us,” Flanagan said.
Evans, who is vying for recognition in the talk series category with the likes of Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, told The Times in June that he feels “Hot Ones” should be in the mix with these traditional television mainstays.
“I didn’t know that we’d be a part of the conversation, never dreamed of it,” he said. “But now that we are, I’ll say with my full chest that we belong.”
Khare would also be entering a storied category with legendary past winners like Anthony Bourdain and David Letterman. That prospect, perhaps unsurprisingly given her record of daunting feats, doesn’t intimidate her.
The list of past winners in this category and other television stars who have inspired Khare’s work are mostly men. “I would love to inspire young women to go out and be great too,” she said.
Despite the tough odds of securing not only a nomination but shooting for a win in a competitive field, Khare remains optimistic about her chances.
“Conan O’Brien, I’m coming for you,” she quipped.
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