And now, back to Tom Scott‘s regularly scheduled programming.
On Monday, dormant internet star Scott posted his first YouTube video since Jan. 1, 2024, when he announced his decision to step away from the weekly grind of content creation. Scott, who still boasts more than 6.6 million subscribers on the video-sharing platform, didn’t just stop by to break a solid silent streak, but to reveal his new project, “Tom Scott: England.”
The new series, featuring 41 episodes on England’s historical counties, was filmed over an eight-week road trip. The show debuts its first episode Monday on Nebula, which will be the home of the “canonical version” of “Tom Scott: England,” Scott says, and then episodes will hit YouTube a week later featuring ads and some edits.
Two hours before the first episode (titled “I Helped Break a 142-Year-Old Bell, and That’s Okay”) launched on Nebula, Scott took a break mid-edit on the subtitles for upcoming episodes of “Tom Scott: England” to speak with Variety about why he decided now was the time to return to regular content creation.
“The simple answer is that I had an idea that worked, and the alternative was not doing it,” Scott said. “That was the rule I lived by for a long, long time: the alternative is not doing it. And I remember coming up with that when I was a student, maybe 20 years ago, and just throwing stuff at the Internet. I had the idea. Well, that works. That’s possible. I have the brain power and ability and resources to be able to make this, I think it’s going to be good. I can’t not do it at some point.”
“Tom Scott: England,” produced by Scott’s Pad 26 Ltd in collaboration with Penny4 and Breadbox Studios, features Scott hopping around England’s historical counties (the total number of which, he notes, is a hot topic of debate) and to showcase a significantly interesting aspect of each location.
Since Scott stepped away from making regular videos on YouTube, he’s been monitoring the increasingly high bar that’s facing online creators post-COVID. Known for his educational and travel-related content, Scott had been posting consistently since 2014 when he decided it was time to take his leave of YouTube.
Though he’s missed the experiences this unique brand of self-employment brought him, Scott says he’s only decided to return now because he believes that the new format he’s developed, which combines novelty and familiarity, is offering something new to viewers sifting through the overly saturated creator economy.
“I have one of the best jobs in the world; at least for me,” Scott said. “I recognize that going out and having to talk to people and be on camera and enthusiastic on demand would be some people’s personal hell. Like, I would want to do this, even if it wasn’t my job. I did want to do this when it was my life. I wasn’t getting paid for this to start off with, but I was just throwing stuff at the Internet. And then at some point, I realized, oh, I can go into interesting places and show them off to people.”
Scott continued: “Years ago, for the old project, I got to walk on the dish of a radio telescope as it moved. Yes, of course I want to do that! But you cannot do that as a tourist. There’s this magic filming privilege I seem to have, and I don’t want to lose that. The fact that I can do that, and that’s actually my job, is wonderful. So when I had the idea of this format, this works, this is possible, this can be done, this is an improvement, this is new, this fits what’s going on now — the alternative was not doing it.”
To watch the “Tom Scott: England” premiere today, you’ll have to go to indie streamer Nebula (with which Scott has previously collaborated with on his series “Tom Scott Presents: Money” and to appear on the travel competition series “Jet Lag: The Game”). Scott says there’s two main reasons for that distribution choice — one being YouTube’s content restrictions.
“In one major case, and in one minor case, there’s going to be some blurring,” Scott teases. “There is one episode which has a hell of a content warning on it… By the end of it, about two-thirds of the screen is being blurred out and desaturated to avoid some fictional blood and gore. Nebula, entirely unblurred canonical version of the video; YouTube, absolutely not. Even with all the educational guidelines, there’s no way they’d let that on there.”
The other reason is dollars and cents: Nebula offers Scott another revenue stream for the series (a project he’s not yet certain he’ll recoup his production costs on) and the non-exclusive pact lets him maintain as large an audience as possible when the episodes later post on YouTube.
So Nebula first was the right match because it lets me put out the videos I want to put out, but I still have the larger audience that lets me access ridiculous places that very few people get to film in. God knows, Nebula manages to punch way above their weight with their reputation. But it is very handy to give a number of subscribers that is in the millions and public and verifiable.”
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