Alex Cooper Doubles Down On YouTube With ‘Unwell Summer Games’
Alex Cooper's media company Unwell is expanding its YouTube competition franchise with Unwell Summer Games, launching on 7 September, following the success of Unwell Winter Games earlier this year. The move underlines Cooper's push to build original entertainment formats for YouTube, part of a wider trend of production companies seeking ways to develop content specifically for the platform rather than traditional broadcast or streaming.
The new series will pit 16 contestants, including several former Love Island stars and reality personalities, against each other over four days at a Canadian ranch, competing for a $250,000 cash prize. Adam W will host, with commentary from Cameron Gerrard and Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, while Eric Detwiler, known for producing Love Is Blind and Perfect Match, joins as an executive producer alongside Cooper, Matt Kaplan and Mina Lefevre. Unwell Winter Games, which featured cast members from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, drew strong viewership on YouTube, with its debut episode reaching 1.4 million views and its top-performing episode hitting 1.8 million.
- Alex Cooper's Unwell launches Unwell Summer Games on YouTube, 7 September
- 16 contestants compete for $250,000 at a Canadian ranch
- Follows Unwell Winter Games' strong YouTube viewership success
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Alex Cooper is a podcaster and media entrepreneur best known for "Call Her Daddy". In recent years she has built Unwell, a broader media company that produces video content, and has increasingly focused on YouTube as a home for original shows rather than traditional TV or streaming platforms.
Unwell Games is a competition format the company has developed specifically for YouTube, bringing together contestants from reality TV, including former Love Island stars, to compete in physical challenges for a cash prize. An earlier instalment, Unwell Winter Games, performed strongly on the platform, which is part of why the company is now producing a follow-up series.
This matters because it reflects a wider shift in the entertainment industry, with production companies increasingly designing shows for YouTube's audience and format rather than adapting existing TV content. Cooper's move is being watched as a test of whether creator-led media companies can build lasting entertainment franchises on the platform.
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