'The Mansion' Becomes Viral Internet Sensation Without Catfighting Or Drama
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — It's a little bit "Big Brother" and "Real World" rolled into one.
Several internet stars from Germany are living under one roof in West Hollywood and viewers get to see them live together and travel around the state.
"The Mansion" isn't just a hit, it's quickly becoming a sensation.
CBS2's Entertainment Reporter Suzanne Marques took a behind-the-scenes look at the house and its residents.
"You live together, you work together and we have a lot of fun, and we do projects together which is the coolest part.
You bring gamers and movie journalists together and comedians," said Vanessa Christin Poehlmann.
The European stars get to experience the best that California has to offer all the while being taped.
"This project is great it brings together so many different people. We know each other, but we have never worked together that much and now we are all in one location," said Robin Blase.
Marques says there is one major difference between this show and others that feature real life people living and traveling together. No drama. This is all about fun. The cast also speaks German -- okay, two differences.
The house is located in the heart of WeHo.
"The idea was to have a nice house in West Hollywood where we can invite big YouTubers and start collaborations from there," said Christian Meinberger, head of current programming for Studio 71, the show's production company.
The series made its debut in May and quickly caught on. A new episode or two is posted every day. There have been more than 100. There is also a weekly one-hour live chat on Fridays.
"It's the fastest growing YouTube channel at the moment. We have 170,000 subscribers at the moment and we have surpassed the 10 million video views mark. Given that we started in may, that is quite successful," says Meinberger.
"We are basically having a new adventure every day," says Blase.
Blase and Poehlmann -- have been with the show about a month.
"When I first i heard about this idea I thought it was amazing because the name is cool, 'The Mansion'. and then to bring German YouTubers together in LA his is where the magic happens. to let them experience things and the audience can experience them with us," says Poehmann.
So far those experiences have included San Francisco, Comic Con, E3, you name it -- connecting with new fans all over the world one click at a time.
"It's really all about authenticity that is what people want to see on YouTube. its not about everything being perfect its about people having fun and letting other guys in front of the computer have fun with them," says Poehlmann.
Marques reports production on "The Mansion" is expected to wrap in a couple of weeks. Due to success of the project, Studio 71 plan's to take the company global.