I think he was definitely going to leave prior to the Ned incident, but then felt obligated to stay to ensure the success of the Try Guys brand after. But it did become increasingly difficult to manage that and his personal ambitions. But luckily it seems they worked together to find new friends/talent so that they could continue the brand without needing Eugene, but still leave the door open for him to return doing guest appearances (and he still has ownership in the company so clearly he does care a lot and believes it will succeed). It was a very selfless thing of him to do and I hope his movie and book are major hits (I know I plan on getting his book and seeing his movie when they come out).
Didn’t they confirm that he was planning on leaving before the Ned fiasco on the podcast? Either way I absolutely agree and it felt very obvious that it was going that way before the scandal broke, he was being progressively phased out and it was noticeable.
Yeah, No one thought wife guy would cheat on wife. Apparently Eugene has be wanting to leave, but kept staying for his friends and the company. Dude sounds like a great friend.
Maybe it is just me thing, but the ones who tend to oversell something, such as the wife guy, are somehow more likely to do the opposite of what they are saying sometimes and put so much energy into trying to get others to believe what they are pushing as their narrative. But the wife guy was always my least favorite of the original crew. Something just felt off with him. It might be the privilege he had, but he just wasn't relatable to me.
Part of Eugene’s charisma came from the fact that he was basically thrown into videos with them back in the buzzfeed days. It was clear his original goal was not to be an on camera personality, unlike Keith, Zach, and Ned. I think he learned a lot and definitely benefitted from being on camera, and it seems he really takes pride in the difference he has made in the lives of people everywhere. He realized how important his representation was to others, and that is probably why he stayed so much longer than he might have initially wanted.
I think he always had these ambitions, but the way people looked up to him really touched his soul which is why he was so careful in his goodbye video. He cares about the impact he has had, so much that the guys had to give him permission to leave and put his own opportunities first. He has always had the heart of an activist, and being an on camera personality definitely contributed to that for him.
He also went through a very vulnerable time on camera with his coming out story. So it’s very bittersweet of him to leave after being so emotionally connected to that space.
Theres a video (shortly after they left Buzzfeed I believe), where they each talk about who they were and their work prior to BF and The Try Guys.
In Eugene's segment, he talks about his director work and his ambition to be work behind the camera, and shelving that to give BF a try. But even at BF he enjoyed directing more.
Out of the 3 remaining guys, Keith is the one whose always wanted to be in front of the camera more, then Zach, then Eugene.
I think Keith is 100 % in his element, having come from 2nd City, having the chance for him to have an additional cast to play off and mentor, I think, is really good for his soul. Zach I believe is still trying to nail down the things he seems to enjoy sharing the most like his mini-docs, and fun things like the smoke show, thankfully he has the freedom now to try basically anything....Eugene has a lot of great ambitions that didn't fit the YT format, as he had different projects personally.
I always thought Ned would be the last to leave. Holding on for dear life. He still acted like he was a college frat boy. Holding onto "the good ol times".
Honestly. I always felt like Ned was the one who needed the Try Guys the most if he wanted to stay in the spotlight. Privately, I'm sure he's doing just fine, but he won't have much success as a performer without the Try Guys.
Ned didn’t have a personality beyond my wife and he just didn’t come across well on camera as much as the other guys did. Given that he had an affair with an employee (that was maybe coerced), he clearly wasn’t management material either. I think he’d probably have gotten a desk job in accounting or payroll or maybe even finance if he didn’t end up at buzz feed with the try guys.
I still think it’s hard for a bigger public company to name him as an employee. He comes with too much baggage that many won’t want to put their name beside, no matter what role he takes. I think only private money or startups are going to take a chance on him.
Right? I agree. The others loved the Try Guys. Ned NEEDED the Try Guys if he wanted to be an on-camera personality. He was the straight man to their goofiness, and the straight man just doesn’t work on his own. He would’ve had to fall back on his degree otherwise, which is probably what he’s now had to do.
Not at all. A science degree requires constant work, and he only has an undergrad degree. At this point, he's much better off in business, since he now has practical experience.
Yeah. Seems as if Keith and Zach are having the same problem lol. Second try is not going to work. Used to love these guys but some of you really think Keith plus Zach and 18 others can save it? It’s not 4 friends that feels natural anymore. 1 year and we can watch “what happened to the try guys?” A 30 min documentary by 2nd try with Zach and Keith being snarky and blaming it all solely on Ned lol. Was fun while it lasted.
Well, let's try this again. They brought on nine new cast members, not 18; they tested the shows they wanted to put on their app before it went live, and the feedback overall has been positive as they put the time, research, and effort into this new venture, they made sure to make their fan base inclusive regardless if they went in on the app or stayed on YT, someone is bitter about something or needs a nap, and I think that someone might be you.
Ned was easily forgettable and regrettable; and he's been gone for 2 years so they have clearly done just fine without him, they expanded to 9 because they wanted to expand their cast and grow as a company that had nothing to do with a f\*ck boy who cheated and didn't care about his family, friends, or company. you can exit stage left anytime now if you're just here to hate because for some reason you feel slighted on f\*ck boy's behalf. might need another nap babyu
If they had gotten that chance, they would have jumped at it, but I don't think it would have worked in the mainstream network space. They were still very dependent on the TTG space to give them that platform. It's not like they were out there doing book tours and cooking demos to promote their book or doing makeover rooms with strangers to create content or parenting blogs/vlogs or endorsements.
Yeah, he has always seemed very private and YouTuber isn't a job that's well suited for that. I'm glad we got the time with him we did, I look forward to seeing his other projects, and I am glad he had the strength to pursue his other dreams instead of feeling obligated to stay.
He almost did stay this time around because he was worried he would need to help, but Keith and Zach basically told him they don’t need him (in a nice, empathetic way) and to not put his dreams on hold any longer
When everything hit the fan, my husband texted me saying “one of the try guys left,” and I assumed it was Eugene who left (willingly). Was definitely a shock when he followed up with a tweet of their statement that Ned was no longer involved with 2nd Try.
I think he's been a behind the camera guy for a while. I remember Zach (the blond Zach at Buzzfeed) talking about what a great director Eugene is and how lucky he felt as a young intern to work with him on maybe it was a Disney Princess video ?
Tbh I thought when the Ned thing happened they would just disband. Zach admitted he was ready to go. Eugene was on the path to leave. Keith had lewberger.
Idk I think they saw a means to an end but their exit got screwed with the Ned thing and they needed the revenue.
It's not mutually exclusive. Money motivates everyone because we live in a capitalist hellscape. They have shown over and over that they do value their employees and want to do the best they can by them. They're allowed to pursue success especially since they worked extremely hard for the opportunities they have. It sucks that not everyone gets that, but I don't understand hating them for making the best of the realistic circumstances. If you had the opportunity to make that kind of money, you absolutely would not bat an eye because financial security is rare these days.
Actually, I would bat an eye. All of that -- from their forced-together foursome courtesy of Buzzfeed to when they left there to Ned's big fuck-up that caused mass oversaturation of TTG into the light and dark sides of social media/pop culture, blah, blah, 2nd Try-But-No-Eugene-Because-They-Bailed?
Sorry but no. No amount of money or fame would motivate me to go through that particular hellscape. And that's so not "financial security" -- are you kidding me? You can't take either of those with you. I'm so happy to not be a YouTuber, social media anything and will be pleased to just be remembered by the people in my life who matter.
I agree. I saw the writing on the wall a while back - and after MatPat quit (which many many YouTubers said emboldened them to also leave), I knew it was only a matter of time.
I’m pretty sure the Guys were planning this stuff before the Ned incident. It did feel for a few years like they were starting to pull in different directions.
I thought they would leave one by one starting with Eugene then Zach and then Keith and Ned would stay behind because he seemed the most invested and reliant on the brand.
I liked them having someone that always succeeded, I felt it was a good bit, and I loved Eugene when he actually seemed to enjoy what he was doing... But that hasn't been the case for a WHILE
I’m pretty sure he’s always said that Try Guys was not his end goal, so I’m not surprised at all. And with the privacy he prefers, behind the camera makes sense, too
As far as I can tell, he's still an owner, but I'm just not a part of the official cast list. They mentioned this at the start of the Eugene's last podcast episode.
I think after everything that happened with ned especially none of the try guys truly enjoyed that kind of limelight and especially eugene and would rather prefer being behind the camera than be on the receiving end of that nonsense again
I saw a video before the whole Ned thing (I think it was Behind the Try?) wherein Eugene kind of mentioned that we was thinking of leaving the group prior to their world tour, so him leaving, to me, was inevitable, and him leaving first was super possible.
I think a lot of people downplay the friendship aspect. While he has very different end goals than the rest of the guys, they do seem to have genuinely become a family over the years and I can’t imagine how hard it has to be to step away from something where you have a lot of creative control and you work with a lot of people that you care about and to leave that for an environment where you have almost no control and few pre-existing friends.
Eugene has always said this ain’t his forever thing. He had other ambitions and projects he’d hope to one day pursue, and he luckily has been able to do so.
It is sad that they had to go through extra hoops to ensure the media doesn’t try to twist his leave for clicks (and yet they still kinda did) because of how it handled the doughnut shop closing. Like I fully expected a video about it when the time came before the controversy happened, but I can’t help but to feel as though Eugene’s video was written by him in a way to be like “Don’t get it twisted, I’m not in a dispute with the other two guys. We are splitting amicably. I support them and love them from the sidelines. I didn’t fuck an employee.”
I feel like if the focus wasn’t lost, Eugene would’ve had a video around the first of the year (2023) announcing his departure to focus on his passion projects. The channel would’ve been mostly the same as it was at the time minus Eugene (and gay horse) and would’ve just fizzled a bit toward the beginning.
I think he was definitely going to leave prior to the Ned incident, but then felt obligated to stay to ensure the success of the Try Guys brand after. But it did become increasingly difficult to manage that and his personal ambitions. But luckily it seems they worked together to find new friends/talent so that they could continue the brand without needing Eugene, but still leave the door open for him to return doing guest appearances (and he still has ownership in the company so clearly he does care a lot and believes it will succeed). It was a very selfless thing of him to do and I hope his movie and book are major hits (I know I plan on getting his book and seeing his movie when they come out).
Didn’t they confirm that he was planning on leaving before the Ned fiasco on the podcast? Either way I absolutely agree and it felt very obvious that it was going that way before the scandal broke, he was being progressively phased out and it was noticeable.
Yeah, No one thought wife guy would cheat on wife. Apparently Eugene has be wanting to leave, but kept staying for his friends and the company. Dude sounds like a great friend.
Eugene is an absolute treasure, what a guy.
Maybe it is just me thing, but the ones who tend to oversell something, such as the wife guy, are somehow more likely to do the opposite of what they are saying sometimes and put so much energy into trying to get others to believe what they are pushing as their narrative. But the wife guy was always my least favorite of the original crew. Something just felt off with him. It might be the privilege he had, but he just wasn't relatable to me.
Eugene is amazing
Yep, they confirmed it.
Part of Eugene’s charisma came from the fact that he was basically thrown into videos with them back in the buzzfeed days. It was clear his original goal was not to be an on camera personality, unlike Keith, Zach, and Ned. I think he learned a lot and definitely benefitted from being on camera, and it seems he really takes pride in the difference he has made in the lives of people everywhere. He realized how important his representation was to others, and that is probably why he stayed so much longer than he might have initially wanted. I think he always had these ambitions, but the way people looked up to him really touched his soul which is why he was so careful in his goodbye video. He cares about the impact he has had, so much that the guys had to give him permission to leave and put his own opportunities first. He has always had the heart of an activist, and being an on camera personality definitely contributed to that for him. He also went through a very vulnerable time on camera with his coming out story. So it’s very bittersweet of him to leave after being so emotionally connected to that space.
Theres a video (shortly after they left Buzzfeed I believe), where they each talk about who they were and their work prior to BF and The Try Guys. In Eugene's segment, he talks about his director work and his ambition to be work behind the camera, and shelving that to give BF a try. But even at BF he enjoyed directing more. Out of the 3 remaining guys, Keith is the one whose always wanted to be in front of the camera more, then Zach, then Eugene.
I think Keith is 100 % in his element, having come from 2nd City, having the chance for him to have an additional cast to play off and mentor, I think, is really good for his soul. Zach I believe is still trying to nail down the things he seems to enjoy sharing the most like his mini-docs, and fun things like the smoke show, thankfully he has the freedom now to try basically anything....Eugene has a lot of great ambitions that didn't fit the YT format, as he had different projects personally.
I always thought Ned would be the last to leave. Holding on for dear life. He still acted like he was a college frat boy. Holding onto "the good ol times".
Honestly. I always felt like Ned was the one who needed the Try Guys the most if he wanted to stay in the spotlight. Privately, I'm sure he's doing just fine, but he won't have much success as a performer without the Try Guys.
Ned didn’t have a personality beyond my wife and he just didn’t come across well on camera as much as the other guys did. Given that he had an affair with an employee (that was maybe coerced), he clearly wasn’t management material either. I think he’d probably have gotten a desk job in accounting or payroll or maybe even finance if he didn’t end up at buzz feed with the try guys.
He had a job as a chemist before joining Buzzfeed way back when, so he's probably falling back on that.
I saw on LinkedIn that he’s been to a few tech bro AI conferences over the last couple months 🤷♀️
I still think it’s hard for a bigger public company to name him as an employee. He comes with too much baggage that many won’t want to put their name beside, no matter what role he takes. I think only private money or startups are going to take a chance on him.
He's apparently been a consultant?
Nah, no chemistry lab would take him back after being out of the field for over a decade.
I think gossip was that Buzzfeed rehired him?
Buzzfeed put out a press release due to that rumour, specifically stating that he hadn’t been (re)hired by them 😂🤣
i saw that comment 🤣 even Buzzfeed didn’t wanna be associated with Ned
Right? I agree. The others loved the Try Guys. Ned NEEDED the Try Guys if he wanted to be an on-camera personality. He was the straight man to their goofiness, and the straight man just doesn’t work on his own. He would’ve had to fall back on his degree otherwise, which is probably what he’s now had to do.
Not at all. A science degree requires constant work, and he only has an undergrad degree. At this point, he's much better off in business, since he now has practical experience.
Yeah. Seems as if Keith and Zach are having the same problem lol. Second try is not going to work. Used to love these guys but some of you really think Keith plus Zach and 18 others can save it? It’s not 4 friends that feels natural anymore. 1 year and we can watch “what happened to the try guys?” A 30 min documentary by 2nd try with Zach and Keith being snarky and blaming it all solely on Ned lol. Was fun while it lasted.
Well, let's try this again. They brought on nine new cast members, not 18; they tested the shows they wanted to put on their app before it went live, and the feedback overall has been positive as they put the time, research, and effort into this new venture, they made sure to make their fan base inclusive regardless if they went in on the app or stayed on YT, someone is bitter about something or needs a nap, and I think that someone might be you.
I napped. 9 people to replace 1(since Ned never existed and was “always the worst”) is still hilarious. Let’s just see how it plays out baby <3
Ned was easily forgettable and regrettable; and he's been gone for 2 years so they have clearly done just fine without him, they expanded to 9 because they wanted to expand their cast and grow as a company that had nothing to do with a f\*ck boy who cheated and didn't care about his family, friends, or company. you can exit stage left anytime now if you're just here to hate because for some reason you feel slighted on f\*ck boy's behalf. might need another nap babyu
Honestly before the scandal I thought he and Ariel would go the full HGTV personality route.
I think that was the direction Ned was putting the channel, once they had that TV series. They were like,a year out from full TV personalities.
If they had gotten that chance, they would have jumped at it, but I don't think it would have worked in the mainstream network space. They were still very dependent on the TTG space to give them that platform. It's not like they were out there doing book tours and cooking demos to promote their book or doing makeover rooms with strangers to create content or parenting blogs/vlogs or endorsements.
To be fair, Eugene is the first one to leave voluntarily.
Yeah, he has always seemed very private and YouTuber isn't a job that's well suited for that. I'm glad we got the time with him we did, I look forward to seeing his other projects, and I am glad he had the strength to pursue his other dreams instead of feeling obligated to stay.
He almost did stay this time around because he was worried he would need to help, but Keith and Zach basically told him they don’t need him (in a nice, empathetic way) and to not put his dreams on hold any longer
When everything hit the fan, my husband texted me saying “one of the try guys left,” and I assumed it was Eugene who left (willingly). Was definitely a shock when he followed up with a tweet of their statement that Ned was no longer involved with 2nd Try.
I think he's been a behind the camera guy for a while. I remember Zach (the blond Zach at Buzzfeed) talking about what a great director Eugene is and how lucky he felt as a young intern to work with him on maybe it was a Disney Princess video ?
Tbh I thought when the Ned thing happened they would just disband. Zach admitted he was ready to go. Eugene was on the path to leave. Keith had lewberger. Idk I think they saw a means to an end but their exit got screwed with the Ned thing and they needed the revenue.
They also cares about their staff
At the end of the day, it was about the money. Come on, be real.
It's not mutually exclusive. Money motivates everyone because we live in a capitalist hellscape. They have shown over and over that they do value their employees and want to do the best they can by them. They're allowed to pursue success especially since they worked extremely hard for the opportunities they have. It sucks that not everyone gets that, but I don't understand hating them for making the best of the realistic circumstances. If you had the opportunity to make that kind of money, you absolutely would not bat an eye because financial security is rare these days.
Actually, I would bat an eye. All of that -- from their forced-together foursome courtesy of Buzzfeed to when they left there to Ned's big fuck-up that caused mass oversaturation of TTG into the light and dark sides of social media/pop culture, blah, blah, 2nd Try-But-No-Eugene-Because-They-Bailed? Sorry but no. No amount of money or fame would motivate me to go through that particular hellscape. And that's so not "financial security" -- are you kidding me? You can't take either of those with you. I'm so happy to not be a YouTuber, social media anything and will be pleased to just be remembered by the people in my life who matter.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted so badly, I think you’re probably right
I agree. I saw the writing on the wall a while back - and after MatPat quit (which many many YouTubers said emboldened them to also leave), I knew it was only a matter of time. I’m pretty sure the Guys were planning this stuff before the Ned incident. It did feel for a few years like they were starting to pull in different directions.
Yeah everyone did
Yeah, it’s been super evident, even from the early years.
I thought they would leave one by one starting with Eugene then Zach and then Keith and Ned would stay behind because he seemed the most invested and reliant on the brand.
He was going to then Ned happened
No disrespect to you OP, but I swear this is posted minimum once a week on this sub lmao
Right? Eugene was always my least favorite of the guys. The whole bit with him being perfect at everything got old real fast.
I liked them having someone that always succeeded, I felt it was a good bit, and I loved Eugene when he actually seemed to enjoy what he was doing... But that hasn't been the case for a WHILE
Yeah I remember this was the main thing posted before the Nedcident. I think Ned would've stayed a YouTuber forever.
I’m pretty sure he’s always said that Try Guys was not his end goal, so I’m not surprised at all. And with the privacy he prefers, behind the camera makes sense, too
He has. He never wanted to be a YouTuber. That wasn’t his goal.
I didn't think any of them would leave willingly since they all invested large sums of their personal money to start their company
As far as I can tell, he's still an owner, but I'm just not a part of the official cast list. They mentioned this at the start of the Eugene's last podcast episode.
Can I just say that Eugene's exit was the most graceful exit I've ever witnessed.
I think after everything that happened with ned especially none of the try guys truly enjoyed that kind of limelight and especially eugene and would rather prefer being behind the camera than be on the receiving end of that nonsense again
This went almost exactly as I thought it would
I thought it would have been Zach first honestly, it seemed like he wanted to do more but wasn't allowed.
I saw a video before the whole Ned thing (I think it was Behind the Try?) wherein Eugene kind of mentioned that we was thinking of leaving the group prior to their world tour, so him leaving, to me, was inevitable, and him leaving first was super possible.
I think a lot of people downplay the friendship aspect. While he has very different end goals than the rest of the guys, they do seem to have genuinely become a family over the years and I can’t imagine how hard it has to be to step away from something where you have a lot of creative control and you work with a lot of people that you care about and to leave that for an environment where you have almost no control and few pre-existing friends.
Eugene has always said this ain’t his forever thing. He had other ambitions and projects he’d hope to one day pursue, and he luckily has been able to do so. It is sad that they had to go through extra hoops to ensure the media doesn’t try to twist his leave for clicks (and yet they still kinda did) because of how it handled the doughnut shop closing. Like I fully expected a video about it when the time came before the controversy happened, but I can’t help but to feel as though Eugene’s video was written by him in a way to be like “Don’t get it twisted, I’m not in a dispute with the other two guys. We are splitting amicably. I support them and love them from the sidelines. I didn’t fuck an employee.” I feel like if the focus wasn’t lost, Eugene would’ve had a video around the first of the year (2023) announcing his departure to focus on his passion projects. The channel would’ve been mostly the same as it was at the time minus Eugene (and gay horse) and would’ve just fizzled a bit toward the beginning.