Madam Youtube
Based on real events
9-episode dramatic mini-series
Premise:
Madam Youtube follows the lives of young moms as they unknowingly give their children to a YouTube cult. They watch their children become influencer stars as we watch them become increasingly dependent on a sociopathic controller. From making $60k - $585k a month, and millions of fans to failing to escape a controlling and abusive YouTube house and not seeing their children for years, audiences are brought into the hidden and egregiously exploitative world of young children YouTube stars.. and their moms.
Multiple videos with millions of views
Multiple videos with millions of views
LA TIMES and The Atavist Articles
LA TIMES and The Atavist Articles
Each kid mentioned has millions of fans
Each kid mentioned has millions of fans
Interest
Characters
Alex
(25-30yrs) Female - Our protagonist and the window into the Influencer/YouTube world for the audience. She was once a wild card, but is now emotionally attached and elusive. She starts the series with little money and options and is on the outs with Kimberly but is welcomed back. She comes to regret this decision as Kimberly begins ramping up control over her and her daughter’s lives. She lives with Kimberly, who is in complete control of her only source of money and placing her in increasingly emotionally abusive situations. When Alex tries to leave, Kimberly blackmails her. Alex’s past makes getting out and staying out are a constant challenge.
Kimberly
(30-40yrs) - Our antagonist and the defendant in the legal case. Kimberly starts as a savior who brings in (mostly) single moms and their children to help them climb the ranks of the YouTube influencer world. She is powerful, driven, and a natural leader. She is also resentful of others’ success, cunning, calculated, and sociopathic. Her ruthlessness is shocking, even with her daughter. As the episodes progress, Kimberly’s true colors are revealed including rampant emotional and sexual abuse.
Ayden (20-25yrs) - Ayden is Kimberly’s much younger, hot, hacker boyfriend. He is hopeful, innocent, self-conscious, and shy. He starts out being introduced to others as Kimberly’s step son?. and we watch as he is put to work all day and night and uses his intelligence to play with algorithms to boost or tank YT channels. He doesn’t have a car, phone, or money and is entirely dependent on Kimberly, even though he is the technical brains behind this multi million dollar operation. As the episodes progress, Ayden becomes weathered and worn, a shell of himself, and he leaves his ambitions and morals behind to support Kimberly 110%.
Lea (10yrs) - Alex’s daughter. Lea is overjoyed to be part of the YouTube house and is happily playing the role of Katie’s sidekick in videos, as that’s her real life best friend anyways. As Lea’s channel grows, she starts to develop a bigger personality which makes her become a target for Kimberly. She struggles to support her mom and convince her everything is fine while simultaneously being hurt herself.
Katie (10yrs) - Kimberly’s daughter. Katie begins the series as an innocent kid who works hard and wants to succeed. She is unaware of her mom’s sexualization of her in her videos and enjoys spending time with the other kids. Kimberly separates Katie from the other children by inflating her ego and disrupting any bonds she tries to form. As her mom deliberately ruins any real connections with the other kids Katie has, she starts to revel in her higher-status role within the YouTube group and becomes a insecure bully. She has no real attachment to her peers and ultimately will do whatever Kimberly tells her to do.
Additional characters include: Mom Ramona and son James, Mom Sydney and
son Max, Mom Valerie and son Garret, Mom Jasmin and daughter Nicole,
and tertiary characters such as the legal team, other YouTubers, and
background characters.
Romana (35-40yrs)
Romana start this journey as a normal midwestern mom who has done everything right. She is a professional as her son was ‘cast” in one of Katie’s YT videos as Lea’s love interest. She lets her son join because she sees how much he loves his new friends and hoping she’s helping him pursue his dreams. Quickly she sees some oddly sexual behavior towards James and tries to pull him from the squad. She ends up divorced, isolated, and alone as Kimberly convinces her husband to let James stay in the squad for the money. She starts the lawsuit pursuit to get her kid back, but can’t actually join with the other families because her son stays in the squad. At the end of the season she hasn’t seen her son in two years.
9 Episode Summary
Episode One: Introduction to the characters. Follow Alex and her daughter as they move in to Kimberly’s house, that is in the begging stages of becoming a “Content House”
. We see Kimberly and Alex strategize over the kid’s channels and future video content. Show a clip from one of the kid’s YouTube videos, very “relationship goals” oriented. We get a glimpse of whats to come as we see another mom going live on Instagram bashing Kimberly and accusing her of sexually assaulting her son, but she is written off as crazy. Mom meeting with all the moms to discuss channels.
Episode Two: Grant the Cat is introduced..(who is a character Kimberly plays around the children, where she speaks in a baby voice and says funny but inappropriate things) Sugar factory tour with the kids and moms, they are starting to see some fans come up to them and get excited. Ayden’s position as Kimberly’s IT guy (and boyfriend) in the group revealed, working nonstop to please Kimberly with channel views. Kids gain 1000s of followers. Katie and James are locked in the closet by Kimberly to encourage “connection” for their Youtube videos.:. Alex tries to create more autonomy for herself, but Kimberly won’t allow it.
Episode Three: Bombay trip.. where Kimberly brings all the kids and some parents to the middle of no where and were introduced to a old man who lives out there that she “helps.” Although we are not sure why, drugs, dark web and selling pictures of the kids to unknown men are speculated. Both the control and the money all the kids are making are heating up. Showcases the way Kimberly runs trips. Weird sexual conversations start to take place between Kimberly and the kids. Lea’s ignored on her birthday for a video. Ayden digs deeper into the online world of the dark web. Whispers of a charge against Kimberly are heard.
Episode Four: A mom over hears her son talking to a 20yr old friend of Ayden’s and a “ball-tapping” incident is discussed on the speakerphone call. Ramona takes her son out of the group. A manager is introduced to help Kimberly legally. Hunter reveals he is suicidal. The kids crushes are mixed around causing jealousy.
Episode Five: Ramona is kicked out of her son’s life after her husband finds out how much money he is making and brings him back. Ramona starts the lawsuit. CPS visit Kimberly. Cringey relationship videos are created for the kids and Ayden learns how to tank channels. Ayden attaches videos to porn sites. This is very bad news for the kids who thought we were just hangin on long enough to build up their channels, now they are stuck. Ayden’s laptop is stolen by Alex.
Episode Six: Garret is dealing with the fallout from being kicked out and having lost all of his friends. The manager offers Alex and Lea a brand deal but Kimberly isn’t supposed to find out - she does, which causes Alex to be kicked out of the house. Grant the Cat makes another appearance. Valerie joins the lawsuit. Alex tries to leave with Lea, and Kimberly tries to take Lea away by turning off her phone where she cant get in contact with her mom and calling Alex’s ex, it’s up in the air if Lea will stay.
Episode Seven: Alex and Lea finally leave Kimberly and the squad, but Lea wants her cat Muffins. The two sneak back into Kimberly’s place to grab her. Kimberly is sent over the edge when she discovers that the cat was taken and hunts Alex and Lea down, banging on their door. The mom Ramona was counting on to help from episode 1, comes back into the squad despite her former accusations and recounts all of them. This sets the lawsuit back significantly. Kimberly and Katie fight over a YouTube video idea. We see the toll this lifestyle takes on Katie as she is forced back in an online “crush” relationship to prevent the previous lawsuit from going through. A fake text message is created and fake accounts trying to ruin the former squad members reputation.
Episode Eight: Alex finds a thumb drive and feels like she’s being watched.. Alex withholds information from the lawyers and the other moms wonder if she’s a spy or if she’s done something wrong with Kimberly. Kimberly’s dirty secrets come to light including that she sold her daughter’s used panties online. Kimberly is SERVED. Katie’s channel is demonetized. Kimberly creates a fake pregnancy and fake miscarriage. Kimberly counter-files for $30M and attempts to get the moms on a racketeering charge.
Episode Nine: YouTube clips change from “My crush did X” to “Why I left the squad” People start making videos “Why all these moms should be in prison.” LAWSUIT. Lawyers believe it will be easy to break Ayden when he takes the stand. Lawyers then decide it would be easier to settle and not dispose Ayden, we wonder if Kimberly had gotten to them. Kimberly pillow talks Ayden and tells him it would be easier if he killed himself so he wouldn’t be around to testify. Kimberly invites the kids back into the squad and says she will give the moms $1 million if they drop the deposition. All the moms in the lawsuit are stressed and scared and divided.
Additional Notes
The story is centered on a group of moms (primary characters) and their children (secondary characters). This is not a story about influencers, it has the social media aspect, which will provide some comedic relief (when the children’s “relationship goals” content isn’t completely weirding us out) - but we will mainly explore the underbelly of this multi million dollar empire. A unmatched powerful mom who somehow becomes able to control everything from Youtube’s algorithm to if the children can speak to their own parent, and the women who stand against or with her.
This story is based on the real lives and events of those involved in the soon-to-be highly publicized YouTube sexual assault scandal. This is an ongoing legal battle. My access to this story without being directly involved lends itself to an objective yet intimately connected and detailed fictionalized story.
Legal Case Details.