First it was TikTok. Then it was live shopping. Now it’s microdramas.
After booming for years in China, some American companies are betting that these scripted short-form vertical series will catch on in the US in 2026.
Second Rodeo, a Los Angeles-based production company that creates microdramas and other content, is one of them. On Wednesday, it announced “Playback,” a new musical microdrama, which follows a struggling songwriter who creates an AI version of herself that becomes a famous pop star.
Sound familiar? It reminded us of a modern twist on the “Josie and the Pussycats” movie, which the company told us was part of its research for the show.
“Playback” will premiere early this year on My Drama, a streaming app owned by Holywater, a company using AI to develop content such as books and video series. Hannah Stocking, who has more than 72 million followers across social media, is one of the stars of the series.
Scott Brown, Second Rodeo’s CEO and co-founder, told us he believes casting prominent creators in microdramas will be a “game changer” as they can bring in new viewers who may not be familiar with the format. It could also help change the perception of microdramas, which many people have written off as cheesy.
“That is a huge opportunity. A big difference in this moment is the fandom,” he said. “It reminds me a lot of the early days of YouTube when a lot of people were dismissing YouTube and YouTubers and creators in general.”
Microdramas make most of their money through subscription and one-off payments from viewers to watch the shows. The format is expected to have generated roughly $11 billion in revenue globally in 2025, according to data from Omdia. The caveat is that China accounted for a whopping 83%.
Before founding Second Rodeo, Brown worked as a senior producer for MrBeast, helped Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson launch his YouTube channel and directed Larry King’s comeback digital show on Hulu.
Compared to traditional TV shows or movies, creating a microdrama is much faster—though not necessarily easier.
The “Playback” team came up with the idea in August and by the end of October were on set making it. From there, they shot the entire series in seven days. The 90-page script included 18 musical numbers, though they’re each only about 45-seconds long. Scripting was one of the hardest parts, Brown said.
“With a storytelling cadence that is as fast as—especially the first 20 episodes of—a microdrama, any decent writer’s alarm bells will start ringing,” he said.
We also think microdramas will explode this year, as we outlined in our 2026 predictions. But that could mean that TikTok and other social networks will embrace the format, including by potentially cutting deals with microdrama creators. That would put pressure on microdrama-specific apps, like My Drama.
“It’s going to be a factor that [microdrama apps] are going to have to be concerned with,” Brown said of the competition from social platforms. At the same time, he said social media can be a powerful marketing tool for these standalone microdrama apps. TikTok’s recent move to allow users to sample episodes of microdramas directly in the app is a case in point.
We also spoke to Brown about the key lessons from his career and so much more, including how he approaches casting for microdramas and how he used AI to produce the show: “I’m not fundamentally against the idea of AI doing scriptwriting for us. I just don’t find it to be good enough right now,” he said.
You can watch the full episode on YouTube below or on Spotify, or listen anywhere you get your podcasts.
Pinterest’s TV Move
We should have seen this one coming.
Pinterest is launching a six-episode shoppable DIY series “Bring my Pinterest to Life” for connected TVs, featuring creators Drew Michael Scott, Caroline Vazzana and Tay BeepBoop Nakamoto. The series will premiere in March on Roku. The move follows Pinterest’s recent announcement that it will acquire CTV ad platform tvScientific, which was an indication that the platform was also eyeing TV screens.
Pinterest is different from other social platforms in that its users are primed for shopping. But it has long lagged behind TikTok, Instagram and even Facebook in getting its users to make a purchase on the platform, according to EMARKETER. With this new TV series, Pinterest is clearly looking to change that.
But this isn’t the first time Pinterest has experimented with TV-style content. Pinterest TV, which launched during the live shopping frenzy in 2021, was a series of shoppable live shows featuring creators and celebrities. The shows were available through a dedicated in-app “Watch” tab that was discontinued in 2023.
The Round Up
Discord confidentially filed for an IPO in the US, Bloomberg reported.
Spotify lowered the requirements to start earning revenue from its partner program so that more emerging creators can be eligible. The company also announced it is opening a podcasting and video production studio in West Hollywood, which will be home to shows from The Ringer. Select creators in Spotify’s partner program will also be able to access the studio.
Guggenheim Brothers Media and Abu Dhabi-based investment holding company Ethmar International Holding announced a new investment fund focused on media, entertainment and the digital creative economy. The company will focus on investments in content creation, creator tools and infrastructure and digital IP, among other things. More creator-specific funds was one of our 2026 predictions!
Warner Brothers Discovery’s board rejected Paramount Skydance’s revised bid to acquire the company. Paramount was long expected to buy the company until Netflix swooped in, prompting a bidding war. ICYMI: We did a deep dive into the saga and what a Netflix-Warner Bros. deal could mean for YouTube.
Rumble, the right-wing video-sharing platform, launched a cryptocurrency wallet in partnership with Tether, a stablecoin giant. Viewers can now tip creators directly using digital coins from those wallets.
Political Download
Spencer Pratt announced that he is running for mayor of Los Angeles on January 7, the one-year anniversary of the wildfires that destroyed homes and businesses in the city. That includes the house Spencer shares with his wife Heidi Montag, who are both reality TV stars turned podcasters. Their YouTube channel “HeidiandSpencer” has over 79 million subscribers.
Talent Tracker
Mike Westgate is now the US head of enterprise retail and the telecom sector at TikTok. His other roles at the company have included food, beverage and alcohol sales and TikTok Shop’s head of electronics, office and books.
Lexie Wei is now the head of creator live at TikTok Shop. She previously led the top creator live team.
Dan Krenitsyn is now the chief operating officer of Beehiiv. Previously, he was chief of staff at the newsletter publisher. Before that he led strategy and operations at DoorDash and Meta.
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