React (media franchise)

Other viral videos and YouTube stars that have been reacted to include Salad Fingers, the Overly Attached Girlfriend, "Gangnam Style", The Hunger Games trailer,[31] Shane Dawson,[32] and One Direction,[33] among other topics.

[34] Teens React launched the career of Lia Marie Johnson, it also featured some "famous" 'reactors' as guest stars, including Lisa Cimorelli, Amy Cimorelli, Lucas Cruikshank (who later appears in YouTubers React), Alex Steele, Jake Short, and Maisie Williams.

In early 2014, it was announced that the Fine Brothers made a deal with NCredible Entertainment, a production studio founded by Nick Cannon to develop a television series for Nickelodeon.

[41] The series, dubbed React to That, was "entirely re-envisioned for television," as the reactors "not only watch and respond to viral videos, but pop out of the reaction room and into showdowns where the clips come to life as each reactor is confronted with a challenge based on the video they just watched.

[43] The trademark was filed for "Entertainment services, namely, providing an ongoing series of programs and webisodes via the internet in the field of observing and interviewing various groups of people.

[48] A Variety report detailed that React World would "aggregate videos in a channel to launch later this year to promote, support and feature fan-produced programming based on their shows.

"[49] Additionally, the Fines explained they would provide ongoing production guidance, creative guidelines, format bibles, and other resources, as well as promotional and technical support to those creators who participated with the brothers on React World.

[49] Although YouTube's VP on content partnerships, Kelly Merryman, originally proclaimed "This is brand-building in the YouTube age — rising media companies building their brands through collaborations with creators around the world,"[43] the Fine Brothers were met with overwhelmingly negative reception to their React World announcement.

[48][49][50] BBC News reported that "critics of the Fine Brothers have expressed concern they may use the trademarks to stifle competition," and quoted one YouTuber who detailed "People don't trust them because a few years ago when Ellen DeGeneres did a similar video—not that similar, it didn't have the same format or branding—they claimed it was their format.

"[51] Viewers and fellow content creators alike condemned the Fines for their announcement, with The Daily Dot reporting, "Backlash poured in on Reddit and social media, and other YouTubers posted their own reactions and parodies of the enthusiastically corporate React World announcement video.

"[50] The backlash led to a dramatic drop in subscribers,[52] with upwards of 675,000[d] accounts collectively unsubscribing from the React and Fine Bros Entertainment channels as well as recent videos getting many dislikes in protest as of February 22, 2016.

[53] Mashable described that one Reddit post "ignited a thread of haters, defenders and overall discussion about whether what Fine Brothers Entertainment is doing is fair.

"[48] Ryan Morrison, a gamer, lawyer and Reddit user, declared that he would file a legal challenge to the Fine Brothers' trademark request on "React", writing "These guys didn't come up with the idea of filming funny reactions from kids.

"[54] Though there was an overwhelmingly negative response to the React World announcement, other personalities expressed milder opinions; Internet personality Hank Green wrote "This could actually be a very cool project if it could be divorced from the idea of two very powerful creators attempting to control a very popular YouTube video format.

You don't need anyone's permission to make these kinds of videos, and we're not coming after anyone", adding "We are in no way claiming reaction content in general is our intellectual property.

[58] In their post, the brothers expressed "It makes perfect sense for people to distrust our motives here, but we are confident that our actions will speak louder than these words moving forward".

Reaction to this Medium post was negative on Reddit, where users were reported commenting they would not forgive the Fine Brothers.

The Fine Brothers, creators of the React franchise