James Pumphrey is Leaving Donut
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- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2024
- Donut Media's James Pumphrey's deleted post raises question as to what is next for the social media star. Donut also makes a post that makes things even more interesting.
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If James leaves, Donut is officially done.
Nolan would be the only one left at that point, as far as I’m concerned.
@@CarlYota Don't get me wrong, Nolan is cool. But to me he's not on the podium.
Donut is dead. RIP.
Absolutely
Donut dug their hole now they get to lay in it
Donut died the day when the stopped making Up to speed wheelhouse and etc..
That part
Remember science garage.
@@hypershine6080😢yup
Those shows were ass.
@@hypershine6080that was literally the best thing donut did if Bart joined big time with Jobe and Jeremiah and kept it them three it would be the best channel ever
It started going down hill when we quit hearing “MOW POWA BABIE!”
bow mowa paybeh
🤦
Wasn't getting to many hurspurs either
@@user-zo1kn8ob7h "Translate to English" lol
Pop up, up and down headliiights
Moral of the story: Never ever sell out.
To be fair, they didn't sell out. Donut was owned by private equity before any of them came on board.
Moral of the story here is for the suits:
Don't bite the hand that feeds you. And if you think you were feeding the creators with salaries you will find out who fed who when there's no one to make content, no viewers, and no money.
Most suits always forget that they should work for the people doing the job. And not the other way around, because that is when all the corporate shit begins.
Donut was acquired by private entity almost 3 years ago, in november 2021. Looking at other YT acquisitions, they came out of it pretty alright, maintaining viewership and expanding.
@@drugs4sal3 its not the channel people follow often its the chemistry the hosts have, topgear etc the viewers get to like the presentors and that makes it cool replace them and the vibe be gone and people stop watching
Zach and Jeremiah are killing it BigTime on their second video premiere. 100k views within 3 hours of its debut.
no no...
dude
they already at 1m subs bro...
@@user-zo1kn8ob7h yeah - that too!
They actually put out a video at the same time as donut and their video has double the views compared to donut.
#4 on trending right now
compare the views of that video to the last donut video LOL
I'm a lawyer who at one point worked in that corporate private equity world (never, ever again - I burned those bridges with the biggest flames I could). Legitimately, their entire job is to make as much money for themselves (not investors or anyone else) as they possibly can, and if that requires destroying the company they've acquired a controlling stake in, even better. They buy failing companies, or even companies who aren't failing but want an influx of cash, and proceed to gut them by any means possible. With creatives, they'll make sure that those creatives now have to answer to middle/upper management beancounters who have never created a thing in their lives. It's a problem across all spheres, but ESPECIALLY with creatives. Oh, and everyone I worked with in private equity was almost without exception a huge POS.
I think few people will understand how right you are. I’ve seen this exact thing in the finance world for the two decades I’ve been here. It never occurred to me that kind of thing crosses into the RUclips world.
Yup working in commercial insurance can confirm, PE and investors are a plague on the earth and only out for themselves and will fuck everyone possible for a buck.
This perspective is from the real estate side of things. These types of people and companies are literally ruining the world for their own benefit.
@@Blu.86-te1prit's happening in every single industry, real estate, media/news, education, food, grocery and on and on and on.
Pick an industry and you will find investments, private equity and corporate consolidation have infected it.
Well that is exactly what Kmart/Sears did too. They bought out so many different companies just to take 1 or 2 products or ideas from them and then just disbanded the rest.
As an ex IT security's professional for residential equity firm.
I salute you Mr legal.
I think an overlooked story with Donut is that Nolan started talking about how Insurance companies are spying on you via technology and suddenly Donut is sponsored by Allstate and all criticisms have been silenced.
Nolan is the new face of Donut. I hope everyone does well and we all get lots of great new content. Just hope it doesn’t result in a Hoonigan 2.0 situation.
Nolan and who? Jimmy is terrible and annoying
Nolan has the background, but he's better suited as the straight man sidekick to virtually everyone who left. Sad but true.
Yeah Nolan has no energy for being the main presenter, like someone above me said he's perfectly suited as a secondary, more chill guy..
If James leaves Donut it'll really turn into a soulless corporate trend center, instead of being the cool kid youtube channel it used to be. Sad
Justin and Nolan are both ok, but I don't think they'll stay
@@MidwestRider559 I think yea Justin & Nolan will be *the combo* going forward. Justin is the energetic, bombastic, "in your face" guy, and Nolan is the more straightfoward, laid back, drier sense of humor guy.
Jimmy I think has failed as an experiment, because he's clearly been working there for a minute and has a rapport and meshes with the guys... but (so far) he doesn't have any *presence* except in vids he knows something about. Like the RMS video from yesterday where they brought back Bob Hall (the Miata designer). I get why they paired him with Jimmy since Jimmy *is* Donut's "Miata guy" - but Bob *carried* that episode. It's one thing to let the guest speak and showcase their expertise, but the episode yesterday, Jimmy had no purpose other than intro'ing the clips and describing what happened - but otherwise no input. And it's kinda like that in most vids he's "hosting", his co-host picks up most of the slack. I want to give him a shot, because it takes time for someone to get comfortable on-camera (Jobe & Jerry both had experience beforehand), so maybe he'll develop a bit - but so far he's been a non-entity in most of the videos he's been headlining.
I think that's also why you have Angelina, Sandro, and Steph headlining vids on RMS now. They needed additional hosts with technical knowledge/backgrounds for those vids, and thankfully all of them are pretty camera-savvy as well. (I still think seeing Sandro paired with Paul one day would be hilarious)
Fun fact, non-competes are not valid in California where Donut was located.
They are dicey throughout the fifty states. Companies frown on violating them but it’s hard to demand the behavior of a human being when you no longer pay them to behave a certain way.
Fun fact: As of April 2024 most noncompetes are banned on a federal level.
@@dillonh321 fun fact, the SCOTUS decision yesterday (about fed agency authority/rule making) will probably get the FTC ruling from the Spring challenged and defeated.
Unfortunate, but it's been one of the primary cited examples alongside this SCOTUS ruling.
That's not entirely true, non-competes as to individuals aren't valid in CA, so as an example, Donut couldn't stop an former employee from joining up with Hagerty or Smoking Tire to pursue a similar role that they had at Donut. However, clauses that prevent the creation of an entity as a direct competitor could still be valid, usually in conjunction to how many trade secrets were utilized in the process.
A lot of places does not all non-compete clauses
OG Donut was legit! Up to Speed, Money Pit, etc. great stuff.
Science garage
Science garage is what got me watching. And im too lazy to unsubscribe.
I enjoyed the bumper to bumper as well.
Money pit was awesome
Don't forget my boy Bart and Science Garage !
"No mo powa baby"
😢
Actually made me sad reading that 😭💀😭
Or "Pop up, up and down headlights!"
It’ll be supa powa baby!
No powa baby 😢
I think at some point they told him to stop saying that. Remember a video a while back were he could have said it and they skirted around it.
Wouldn't be surprised if James randomly showed up on BigTime
I can swear there are two moments in their big rig video where he is in the background facing away. I can’t be convinced otherwise! 😂
MO POWER BABY!!
@@KevinStull drop the time stamps
I may be in the minority, but I dig the variety that these splits create. When Car Throttle lost Alex, we as viewers gained a lot of content, new channels, characters, and tons of collaborations. While I am sad that this indeed feels like the end of Donut as we knew it, I’m ever more excited to see what BigTime has in store.
I agree 100%
Amen
You work for Donut?
@@louiec.9782 nope, thank goodness. 😅
The brand caché is supremely diluted. The inside "jokes" and tropes do not hold the same weight anymore. We know change is coming, the answers that are looming all pertain to "what" the formative hires will do or establish moving forward. I'm here for it though.
Look at that video from a couple months ago when they raced their daily drivers. They had their "VP of corporate business" who was a guy in a suit with his Tesla. It was really strange and he seemed out of place among the other staff.
I thought maybe he wasn’t a real guy and just an actor because he seemed like such a douche, that I thought he can’t be real… I now think I was wrong and that guy is running Donut into the ground.
Its satire. He was "the bad guy with a Tesla". You're not supposed to actually believe it lol
And James driving a fucking G-Wagon. I knew something was up when I saw that. Then the massive amount of money thrown at his personal E30 build. He came into a shit ton of money and was using the channel's pull to get his shit built fast as he was running out the door.
@@DeadnCold interesting observation, i didnt even look at it that way but that seems more than 100% possible
@@DeadnCold that E30 build was wild, proper eye watering stuff.
James has been really stressed looking now I know why.
Yessssss I thought he looked like he was super stressed out. We all know that look in the mirror and it was all too familiar.
I hope James also runs his own channel, he was my favorite at donut. But for all three of them to leave donut might not ever recover
Without them Donut isn’t Donut.
James wasn't really a car guy, so how was he anyone's favorite?
@workingguy6666 people like his energy and ability to present. Doesnt need to be a car guy to do that..
@@ryanvandoren1519 I avoided most of the videos with him in them for reasons I'm sure others did as well. People who are out of touch with a given subject should not be followed nor listened to for that subject.
@@workingguy6666 he's a car guy, but he's not the kind of car guy that Jobe and Jeremiah are. He likes driving cars and having them but doesn't really know how to wrench besides the occasional oil change.
Ill be honest. I was kinda jelous of his VW Jetta Mk5.
James was/ is the reason half the people liked/watched donut, i mean everyone else was great too but there was just something about james that made you feel more apart of the experience, he made you feel like one of the boys too, made you feel at home as if you were there
Zach and Jeremiah used the phrase "contractual obligations" which most likely means they had a contract for X amount of videos and they need to finish those out. Most contracts have steep penalties if broken, like if they don't do those videos, then they have to pay back a certain amount of money.
I can feel the energy left donut years ago
Did not expect Donut to speedrun a Hoonigan.
Private equity is evil and they most times do not understand the “magic” that make the most businesses they buy. They only care about money and don’t get that the money will come if you keep the magic, but they will never understand. It is sickening and this isn’t just a RUclips thing this goes for private equity buying franchises and ruining families and lives. I’m part of a franchise where that happened. 29 years and they changed the franchise model I was in, Line-x, and ruined it.
It makes me think about Top Gear.
Except for the part where one of them got (rightfully) fired for assaulting a coworker. But yeah.
@@handcoding Did he (them) though? The BBC simply didn't renew Clarksons contract and the other two didn't renew theirs. And the BBC actually paid some part(Some or all) of the settlement .
@@handcoding From what I heard, the producer that got punched was a righteous prick tbh
@@handcoding Clarkson's hater detected. Opinion dejected.
@@handcoding and even the then CEO of BBC accepted that the punishment was exaggerated, and a decision he will regret the rest of his life.
2 heart attacks*
I experienced this exact situation on a much smaller scale in the motocross industry. It’s sad but it’s almost the cycle of a popular media group; Starts with passion, gets bought out, corporate world takes over, passion is gone… and boom. Looks like BIGTIME has a few of the filmers/editors from donut as well. And they’re using the same posting schedule…. Crazy to see the impact it’s already had on donut in a week. Props to the boys for stepping out on there own
Yes, AutoTea, a former Donut employee/writer censored the ending of his video about what happened, and was saying that he can confirm that James did leave. He censored that part, but it was obvious what he was saying. James left.
The investors have destroyed Donut corp. I'll be actively avoiding their video's just like I do with hoonigan now, It's not the same company I supported under Ken an Donut is not going to get my support without the writers an talent that earned the respect.
This is really interesting to hear from Luke and Stefan’s points of view. Because I’m sure I once heard them say they had corporate jobs before RUclips. So they know both side of how it goes I love it. And Gabe knows the contract his points of view help as well. So solid job guys
I just listened to these guys basically re say everything said in the BIgTime video but put as a question or an assumption. You have the answer to all of those already. The only real question is where is James?
FR. "He said" and then just repeating stuff. I guess this is like most podcasts that just read Wikipedia to people for money.
So cool that he did so much with and for donut , however, the podcast has been refreshingly more calm lately.
I was just thinking how much it has sucked lately lol.
Yeah James was annoying on the podcasts.
James got his Gwagon and bounced lol
He doesn’t follow donut media but follows big time.
It makes sense, we haven’t seen him in forever, even on social media 😢
And since Nolan doesnt have a strong personaliy, Donut would be toasted.
Yeah he is just kind of "present " isn't he.
@@Brass_Heathennolan was more enthusiastic years ago he’s gotten kinda bland lately the entire donut channel feels off
The new podcast "The big three" updated the profile pic, which featured a drawing of the faces of nolan, james and Joe if I´m not mistaken
James was the most enthusiastic and funny person out of the whole crew.
I hear donut saying, “I’ll never financially recover from this.”
Jobe and Jeremiah did it right! Such great personalities and enthusiast! @bigtime is where it’s at!
DONUT IS THE NEW MOTOR TREND 😆💀
I MADE THIS COMMENT BEFORE THE END OF THE VIDEO 👀
the T guy they were referencing is AutoTea if anybody wants to watch his video
Cool man, I couldn’t tell when it showed AutoTea right on the screen when they showed him.
@@TheBajaminoh cool! i was only listening and then didn’t find it in the description after
I love the perspectives here very informative thank you
As long as zumiez is around, donut will keep pumping out merch
James is the face of Donut so much for me that when i heard he was leaving i had to look up if he was the founder/owner of Donut. I thought he starterld Donut.
James is the only reason why I found and followed Donut Media
Donut started to fall after Bart left
"No mo powa babeh" haha
If James joins Bigtime, they will have every member that i watched donut for, and that will be the final nail in Donuts coffin
This is all pretty new to me, but yeah, I'm canceling my sub to Donut ASAP. Screw the corporate types.
James up to speed was pretty much all I watched on that channel tbh most entertaining car videos I ever seen in my life , dude was educational , funny , and kept your attention through the entire video
Donut has become a giant commercial that is disconnected with the automotive community.
Just fyi, non-compete clauses were null and void in California long before they were banned nationwide. So as long as Donut has been in existence, anyone who signed a non-compete wouldn't have had to abide by it if they stayed in CA.
Was fed you vids from this Donut stuff. But I'm hear to stay now. Love the content.
yah ... i am very happy to hear that
James and Jeremiah were Donut as far as I'm concerned. If you don't pay your talent and let them be the talent, they will go be talent somewhere else. Donut is on it's way to being a Donut hole.
They literally said they were paid great and treated good, there problem was that they did not have creative freedom.
Soulless corporate investors ruining another channel by running off the people that made it popular.
Lightning, lightning lightning lightning lightning lightning ⚡️ lightning ⚡️ lightning ⚡️ lightning ⚡️ mo powa babehh
Iconic James 🤘😎
For anyone reading, the tea video they reference is NOT simply business and creatives disagreeing about how to make money. Its about mba’s hiring their buddies, inflating salaries that dont contribute to the product on screen. These guys working real hard to spin in favor of PE so they can get bought one day
Shout out from Georgia, Utah Boys coming in hot !!!
What did the post say?
If it's gonna be true, then Donut will never be the same
No powa, baby 😢💔
That time it was posted james was out of the country there was a video ad he posted showing it talking about the up coming vid showing it...
I literally did this with a cannabis company.
started off small, then they sold. then they told me to
"forget all the content I was making"
"were gunna do it like this now, Its better"
Which was blatant shameless advertising. every video almost a copy, no style, no nada.
I said "nope, you'll do it like this without me. Im out."
We got a lot of views and likes, sad thing is the company doesn't even have a creative team anymore, with in 1 month all my coworkers were gone.
Company doesn't post anymore, and if they do its repeats of old videos from 2023.
Im doing way better now with a new brand and freelance.
Way to stick to your guns bro
I’ve watched 5 episodes of this and just now realized Luke was strads editor camera guy or whatever. Glad to see him doing something cool!
eeverytime i see these damn videos i cannot stop looking at how the top shelf in the back is not level #1 and is not even with the overlap of the hood vent #2. FIX THAT MAN
It’s the angle of the camera 👍 Trust me, Gabe couldn’t sleep at night if it wasn’t straight.
Nolan’s the last soldier left man lol
and the black guy
I just hope he’s ok. He might’ve had another heart issue. Screw the drama, I hope bro is good 💯
This is a serious bummer if true. James may not have been my favorite person there, but his vibe was really what I loved about the channel. That said Real Mechanic Stuff videos with some combination of Angelina, Sandro, and Steph are pretty golden!
I skipped watching most of the videos James was a part of.
react content is like the dumpster sewage level of content. it's not even fking creative. people so dumb they be praising sh(t like that smh
@@workingguy6666 I thought of James as a spice that was best in moderation. Very easily overdone, but definitely missed if not there...
I swear I saw James on a Mr Cool commercial selling ACs. That’s why I’m here.
Nah, those new episodes where you can still se Jobe and Jerry are old, prerecorded. That is the unpublished content they had
One of his old catch phrases “LIGHTNING LIGHTNING LIGHTNING!” That’s from way back and I miss it. 6:14
POP POP POP POP POP UP AND DOWN HEADLIGHTS!
I'm pretty sure California already had a law that nullified non-compete agreements. So I don't think it was the federal ruling that was the reason. Could be wrong.
He went to be with his dad & his son Nolan 😂😂 LIGHTNING LIGHTNING LIGHTNING
James is the one that got me interested in Dounut. I love James and I hope he is doing good. I will follow him to any channel he does about cars. Love him.
So many big channels are falling apart. It means that we get a lot more videos from the people who actually care vs the corporations who think they know better.
Are you guys filming in Mr. Roger's kitchen? Liking the channel so far.
They are just finishing up the contract. not staying on donut media. BIGTIME is where it’s at.
Something must be up.. The thumbnail for The big three podcast went from a head shot of Nolan, Joe, and James to just a thumbnail that says " The Big Three" 🤔
This is happening with braille skateboards too. It's not just car channels
I’m gonna miss that “Welcome to DONUT!” from James, Jerry, and Jobe
On James Pumpfies post he tag one of the managers that left in march.
Lightning! Lightning! Lightning! ~ james pumphrey
creatives in charge, accountants serving creatives: Growth
accountants in charge, creatives being bossed by management: Death
you think they'd learn by now
1 Million Subscribers in 1 week...
Zach leaving is the death to Donut we all know that. He was the backbone
One of the ways companies can get around the non compete banning would be to tie hiring incentives to not working in a competitive space if the employee leaves. Kind of like how the will pay a hiring bonus but if you leave before two years, you have to payback said bonus. Or how they will pay for education, but you have to work for x years or payback the educational expenses.
It's literally a tale as old as time. Small business becomes successful, grows too quickly, big brother investment comes knocking promising cash inflow beyond what they can do, all of a sudden you're seeing things like putting a $50k engine in a $500 Ranger, and suddenly everything turns into commercialized drivel.
Everyone is leaving because they can't create anymore, everything has to be vetted by big brother and if it isn't projected to hit whatever their arbitrary metric is then it's a no go. They don't care if it fails, the whole idea is to make a short term profit and if it succeeds then they just keep pushing the same stuff till it dies and if it dies early then they get to write it off as a loss come tax time. Either way the ship goes down.
Donut died when science garage stopped
Is that why they've gained millions of subs since then?
I was one of the first 100 subscribers to donut and James was the reason why i loved it… it was an amazing car show.. now i dont know what donut is now
No slight to James, but of all the Donut guys, he's probably my least favorite personality. I'm super stoked for what Jobe and Jeremiah are working on - I'd love to see Justin and Nolan join them, Justin is super underrated.
I've read accounts of people who worked with donut in their videos that James is just playing a persona on screen, which he does well considering he's an actor, but irl he's completely different and more cold and aloof not as bubbly as he is in the videos
@@monkerulz A lot of entertainers are like that. Freddie Mercury was very introverted off-stage. Putting on a performance is a way for them to be confident in a controlled environment.
I’m also in that boat. James is the reason I not only stopped watching Donut, but I had YT never ever recommend their channel in my feed again.
Donut died when Justin joined even before
Jobe and Jerry stated they are leaving completely but they have to complete their contract that’s why they’re finishing some series for donut
I’m hoping we get the same kind of situation as the car throttle break ups. 2-3 new really good channels with good presenters, free to do as they want and regular collabs
Ken Block was very much a driving creative force at Hoonigan. He had so much reverence and respect for the artists that created the Hoonigan aesthetic. TBH I've never a brand promote the artists behind the scenes as much as Ken did. What made Hoonigan big was the combination of style and personality, and almost all of that is gone.
If they're sticking around for a single series, it's contractual and legally more difficult to leave than other portions. All about DM structures deals, series, etc.
James hasn't worn donuts merch in ANY videos or posts for over a month now... I'd assume he's gone.
Martini Works addressed this well in a more broad sense about youtube content creators and contracts with corporations. Go check that video out if anyone wants a deeper dive into this topic.
That's the nail in the coffin for Donut media
Matt’s off-road recovery seems pretty local
I think they said they'd still be in donut because they probably had pre recorded episodes?
The boys' new channel BigTime is almost at 1million subs, which is crazy after a couple of videos.
Haven’t seen em in videos, haven’t heard em on either of the podcasts either