ghostfilecabinet - Tumblr blog

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Hey all! I've decided I'm going to take a break and re-discover being a Watcher fan outside of the tumblr community, so this blog will be going on hiatus, and there won't be any new or queued posts.

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Matt: I have to show this video. Ryan: Is it me? Matt: Yes; this is, uh, my wife's a dancer as well, and she was teaching Ryan the Running Man at Shane's wedding. And I'll put it up. Ryan: This is me, tryin' to shuffle!

023: Ryan's Near Death Experiences, Working at Watcher, Dancing, and Making Stuff! • Pod Watcher Season 1 Apr 1, 2024

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From @simuliu on IG - 21/04/2024

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I'm not someone who generally soapboxes on Tumblr. I don't particularly enjoy internet discourse or picking fights with other fans. But after following all the discourse of the last two days, I felt compelled to say something that I hope will make at least some small amount of difference.

I think the move to WatcherTV is a good thing for Watcher Entertainment. I actually kind of saw it coming - the changes to YouTube ad revenue in the last couple of years have made it much less profitable for creators, not to mention unstable (from YouTube's ability to change the rules on them without warning, as well as the constant threat of demonetization for saying the wrong thing in a video). That's no way to run a sustainable business, and the best of Watcher's shows have always felt more like television than YouTube. They've also talked openly at various points within the last four years about their desire to create a network that can be a home for launching other creators, and to make the shows they want to make, they need a more stable income than they're able to get with the YouTube/Patreon model.

All of this was very clear to me from their most recent video, and I was completely taken aback by the level of anger, hurt and vitriol it caused among other fans. It made me realise that I'm significantly more willing, able or both to see things from Watcher's point of view than a large number of other people, and it's been profoundly depressing.

I think Watcher has definitely misstepped in how this announcement was handled. They wildly misjudged the mood of their audience - but I can see why they did it. For them, this is a change they were wildly excited about. It'll bring them complete creative freedom and increased financial stability. It's clear from the video that this is what they've always wanted, and when they found they couldn't do it on YouTube, they looked for another way. They knew they would lose some of their audience share. Probably, most of it. To me, it's incredibly telling about just how precarious and unrewarding YouTube monetization actually is that they feel releasing videos to a fraction of their audience is a better bet than continuing to depend on YouTube to stay afloat.

One thing that's become clear to me among all the rage and hatred is that many people seem to think Watcher have broken a promise to them. A promise to continue releasing all their videos to YouTube, nominally free to watch, that requires them to stagnate creatively, be unable to build a sustainable future for themselves and their employees, and remain beholden to sponsor slots featuring sketchy products (not to mention YouTube's in-video advertising). But Watcher never actually made any such promise. Nobody is owed free "content", and Watcher have said that they can't afford to keep making everything free if they're going to make the shows they really want to make. And to the people who think they should compromise to make sure it stays free - well, there's no right or wrong here, of course, but ultimately you're going to have to accept that what you want for Watcher and what Watcher want for themselves are actually different things.

It hurts, to part ways with something you love. I don't want to devalue that at all. There's grief to be processed for a lot of people, and as long as they're doing that in their own time and space and not trying to make Watcher responsible for their emotions, I have no problem with it.

What I do have a problem with, however, is the people who are lashing out at Watcher directly for making a decision they don't agree with, and demanding Watcher answer for their own pain and anger. Who are attacking other fans and weaponizing social justice language to try and position themselves as moral authorities in the discussion, and implying in the process that the right of team of independent creatives to be paid fairly for their work is less important than their own right to view it for free. Who are placing all the blame for the decision on Steven while absolving Shane (and frequently Ryan, though particularly Shane) from their own part in this decision, thereby implying that Shane and Ryan have no agency in the company they co-founded with a mutual friend of several years (which is rather insulting to the two of them, in my opinion). That's not only conspiracy thinking, it's racist.

I don't know Steven personally, but from being deep in the fandom for four years now, I know that he's an incredibly kind and sincere person who really lives his own ideals. It's him that's taken Watcher as far as it has, putting his own creative aspirations largely aside to run the business side of things, which Shane and Ryan, God love 'em, were really not capable of. By his own admission, he's a little awkward and doesn't always say exactly the right thing the first time around, but he always listens and learns. In short, he's human, and the way he's being spoken about right now by many people, both on social media and this website, is nothing short of disgusting.

If this post makes you mad, I invite you to sit with it and ask yourself why. If you think Watcher should answer for the way you're feeling; if you feel Steven is somehow more culpable than Shane or Ryan in this decision, and are looking for reasons to justify that feeling. If you can't see the difference between a small, independent company like Watcher wanting to make themselves financially stable and creatively free, and any multinational media company. Why you feel Watcher don't deserve to be paid fairly to make the shows they want to make, irrespective of whether you personally are willing or able to pay for them.

One criticism I've had of Watcher for a long time now is that I think they have actually let themselves remain too beholden to their fans and their opinions. I believe they care about and value their fanbase a great deal, and as a result, they've provided too much personal access to fans, and made apologies when they didn't actually do anything wrong, simply because people were angry and upset. Those mistakes are now coming home to roost. They were complicit in allowing their fans to believe that they would do and make whatever the fans wanted, and it's been a harsh awakening for a lot of people to find that's not true after all.

I think it will be good for Watcher to have increased financial stability and creative freedom. I think it will be good for them to build a little more distance between themselves and their often volatile fanbase, and give us a little less of themselves, so they can put that time and energy into art and creation. I hope that once the initial backlash has passed, many of us will move forward on that journey with them.

For those who can't afford or are otherwise unable to subscribe to WatcherTV, I want to shout out @prettyghoul's initiative to pair fans who'd like a free WatcherTV subscription with other fans who'd like to gift one to them. For those who are lucky enough to have some spare disposable income, I urge you to join me on the gifting side.

If you read all of this, thank you; I can assume we're both here because we love Watcher. My hope for this fandom is that we can start to extend ourselves and everyone at Watcher even a fraction of the grace that they have always extended to us.

[ghostfilecabinet]

watcher entertainment they could never make me hate you

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This discourse is frustrating for 1959356 reasons but number one is that I haven't been able to properly have a feeling that my perler bead magnets I sent the boys are in a fucking variety article photo now:

And more importantly, look at all the fanart they have on here. This is how they chose to present themselves. With a bulletin board of things both they and we made. That says a lot about how they feel about going on this journey with us.

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Hi bb, ty for the prompt to write my thoughts!

So I can't get on tumblr at work anymore unless I go outside to get good signal on my phone so I have only been privy to what's going on here today from friends on discord. So maybe I'm missing some nuance or the what my mutuals think and I apologize in advance for that but I'm going to speak plainly.

This is the only way Watcher is going to survive.

The view counts have been steady through Mystery Files season 2 but they aren't, like, astronomical. A video with a million views nets a channel between $10,000 - $30,000. Guys. That's nothing for Watcher. They have to pay each of their 25+ employees a salary with insurance and benefits and for everything else their channel requires. Steven said in the video today that a season of Ghost Files costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't think everyone is hearing that part and understanding how much money that is, especially compared to many other YouTubers they watch. I'm not an expert on other YouTubers but I look at the Sims people I watch. They are successful with views in the hundred k range because they are a company of one. Themselves and maybe paying a freelancer to help edit their videos. For one person, the stakes are lower and the potential for profit is higher! Especially for gamers that are filming in their homes. YouTubers like this, making niche content on the cheap, are who is going to make it in YouTube now.

Watcher is none of those things. They have, from day one, wanted to make high quality unscripted content. All of their shows are shows. They aren't just "Ryan and Shane do [thing]" or "Steven eats [whatever]". They are shows, like ones you see on cable TV or any streamer. And shows are not cheap. Unscripted is cheaper, sure, than scripted. But that doesn't mean cheap. Especially not with the sheer production value we've seen on all their shows, in particular Ghost Files (hundreds of thousands of dollars). That is how much something like Ghost Adventures costs, which is on Travel Channel, an actual TV network that puts up all those costs.

So. That's why Watcher has to pivot to survive.

I think it's a great idea, personally. And yes, I am in a position where I can financially afford it no problem, which I know is a privilege! I am very lucky in that regard. And I understand that many people are upset they won't see the boys as easily on YouTube anymore. That is valid! But they have openly said they are totally fine with password sharing and I think that's a great way to cut down on costs for some folks. Also right now there's a great deal on the yearly sub for early subscribers. $40 for a year is cheaper than any streaming service and it doesn't go to anyone other than Watcher.

I understand that people feel hurt and blindsided, but I think Watcher is also feeling this too. They have been so excited about this and being able to make whatever they want without having to worry about sponsors and now they're mostly seeing anger directed their way. Especially at Steven. Steven is not rich. You know who's rich? David Zaslav, a man who is single-handedly ruining Warner Brothers and making himself a billionaire while he's at it. THAT is the kind of person we should be directing our anger at streaming prices and quality of the media landscape at. Not one small business that is just trying to survive so they can continue paying their employees.

And one more thing. I've seen folks saying they'd rather watch more ads than pay and while I get that, that's not going to help Watcher make what they want. YouTube famously demonetizes videos with swears which is why I can't watch a video with DRAG QUEENS without every other line being bleeped and Watcher has been so good about not bleeping their content because they know we would hate it. And YouTube does this because of advertisers. Advertisers only want to appeal to the most broad of audiences so that means not supporting anything slightly left of center. Having to deal with ads sucks from the creator perspective and does not help them in the long run.

Anyway, this is all a bit rambling, but these are my thoughts on WatcherTV. I'm extremely excited to subscribe and make them make more Weird Wonderful World. I hope to see you all there.

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We’re Leaving YouTube

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The wait was worth it!

Travel Season, premiering May 31st on watchertv.com

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I've thought about this a little bit, and it feels like a cop out, but truly I can see both sides.

On one hand, it's a fledgling company who wants to make art in a way they feel proud of. It's all well and good for us to say "we were here when the text was blue and yellow and we don't care about production value", but as someone who in her own right creates - whether its gifs or writing or silly little scrapbook pages - it's about creating something you believe is of the highest quality you can create.

Not only that, it's also about being a company that can support its employees and pay them a more-than living wage. It's potentially about being able to fulfill promises to people who had invested in Watcher in the beginning, though I know less about that.

To say that 'they make bank' with patreon and sponsorships and merch when they support a staff of over 20 people is potentially untrue. What seems like corporate greed can have several layers.

On the other hand, it's not an overreaction for fans to feel abandoned and disregarded - especially those in non-Western countries, as well as younger fans.

Fans feeling bitter at being told that USD5.99 is an amount 'anybody and everybody can afford' isn't unreasonable. It's a large amount for many fans who live in countries where several USD is a quarter of what they earn in a month, or even for people who are at stages in their life where everything they earn has to go into keeping themselves fed and housed.

Imagine a life where you struggle so much to meet your own needs, where some of your only comforts is sitting down at the end of the day and watching people talk about conspiracies or shout at air in abandoned buildings, only to see that was being taken away from you (and by the very system that's been holding you hostage and making you miserable)? I can see why people would lash out. Why it would seem like these people who joked about eating the rich and understanding privilege have been lying all along.

To me, both of these things - creatives turning away from a highly controlled space like YouTube with its low financial returns, and fans hating that content that used to be free now has to cost them money and reading that as capitalist predatory behaviour, all stem from the same issue, which is that money and art are intertwined. Whether this is terrible and insidious or just a fact of life is another point of mixed feelings, for me.

The point is: I understand why Watcher is doing this. I understand why people don't want Watcher to do this.

Do I think it's a good thing? I'm not sure. How much will their content change? Their reasoning is feeling that they're having to make content for both their fans and advertisers, so that creates an expectation that making this decision will change what they put out in a positive way. That's added pressure. Another thing is that there is a narrative they're pushing of doing this for their audience, while of course making it inaccessible to a potentially large chunk of them. How will that bridge be crossed? These questions definitely need answering, but they need time to be answered. I'm withholding judgement until these get answered for me, and I'm ready to be patient.

Do I think it was the smart thing for them to do in the long run? I have no idea. I want it to be, because I don't want them to fail and decide to give up. It's not a nice feeling to see artists give up on making their art be their livelihood.

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I'm... so sad

It's a big change, I know, anon. I hope you have a good support system of people around to talk through this with.

I like to think of it this way. We're witnessing a creator/company we love embark on a gamble of a project. It's always been sink or swim for these guys but at the end of the day, they all love to create and they love to share what they create.

As witnesses to their lengthy story, there's going to be shifts that seem scary and even inaccessible, and you're perfectly valid to feel some type of way about it.

I'm steady in the camp of "let's wait and see" and hope for the best.

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saw ryan bergara be interviewed tonight at a college and OMG. IT WAS AMAZING. SO ANYWAY, I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE SOME VERY BRIEF HIGHLIGHTS FROM THAT NIGHT:

- he restated that he believes that shane is a robot in the way that he simply does not process emotion.

- according to ryan: “we [him and shane] actually are friends! … unfortunately! 😭”

- he said that he sees shane the most out of everyone else in his life. second only to maybe his wife.

- he told the story about how he and shane met and become friends! <3

- ryan wants his last words to be “keep rolling!” ? 😟

- ryan wants to be swallowed by aliens ??? 😟

- ryan wants to be killed by an alien in front of all his loved ones ????? 😟

- ryan brings up the fact that shane always says that if aliens exist, they should be smart enough not to let themselves be seen. to that, ryan asks the very awesome question of, “WHY CAN’T THERE BE DIPSHIT ALIENS?” 😭

- his favorite moment with shane is when they almost died! (as they were on a boat in an extremely dangerous situation, they watched a thunderstorm together while staring at the skyline and stars. shane said, “nice night.” and ryan said, “yeah.” and they stood in silence.)

- ryan was asked how shane convinced him to be a guest in puppet history, and ryan said that shane didn’t have to convince him at all. ryan said that he genuinely loves puppet history, even if he has to pretend that he doesn’t! :)

- apparently, shane never actually has the songs done during their recording, so most of the time he’s playing some voice memo rough draft (which is why ryan is so distressed every time a song is played in puppet history) and the actual finished song is added in post 😭

- ryan said that if anything happened to shane, he would probably be the one going to prison because of all the threatening jokes he’s made towards him 😭 he thinks people will just assume it’s him 💀 LMAOOO

anyway the show was great, ryan threw t-shirts into the crowd, was asked about his sneakers, and talked about his dog for a while!

very fun! AND i met a very kind girl who was nice enough to airdrop me some pictures of ryan because mine were trash! (the 2nd photo in this post was taken by her btw so full credit to her for that!) 💛

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This is gonna be better than that fuckass solar eclipse.

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they’re gonna file your ghosts!!!

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“Are you a human being?” - Professor Morris Ashley @wearewatcher

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That’s it. That’s the whole show (and most of the channel as well)

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My Ultimate Theory To What Is Happening With Watcher Entertainment.

Heads up- I finished most of this and for some reason, Tumblr just decided to yeet that draft out of existence, so I am starting from scratch... and I'm too lazy to add all my goofs and gaffs so here-

I will give you my first theory and then my ultimate theory in this like master list-type post on what I believe will be announced by Watcher on April 19th, 2024.

This will be long so if you want to skip it, ya can. But if you are anything like me in which all of this news has had you in a permanent chokehold you can not escape out of- well then, time to fasten your seatbelts kids-

👁️IT'S THEORIZING TIME!👁️

One thing I would like to get out of the way is that I am a Patreon member. Currently, I am subbed to the highest tier, Omniscient Observer, where we tend to get all the juicy exclusies... but not with this announcement! Nope! No AMAs or live streams prepared a single soul for this. Hell, Watcher didn't even include the new intro, sponsored ad portion, or that ending to the early release!

In layman's terms, all of us watcherinas are on the same page here which is simply: WTF IS HAPPENING?!- which leads me to my first theory.

THEORY NUMBER ONE:

The first one (out of only two theories ok?) that many watcherinas seem to jump on is:

Watcher Entertainment is launching their own streaming service.

Why? I really think it was because of the link to the website www.watchertv.com that was provided at the end of the video in place of the Patreon promo-

-gives off similar vibes to Dropout.TV. Now I don't know much about Dropout, but all I know is that they are a larger company by a mile than Watcher is, and there is nothing wrong with that. Dropout has just been around longer as the company predates YouTube under its former name/branding; CollegeHumor. Plus their YouTube channel has over 14 million subscribers while Watcher is close to 3 million.

Overall- Watcher is baby. Dropout is titan.

All in all, it would be too risky for such a small company to launch their own streaming service as they are still trying to curate an ever-growing audience.

Also the only other hint towards this theory has to do with the Patreon. In a short story, about a week ago, maybe, we were sent a survey on Patreon just to answer a few questions as a way to give our personal feedback on Patreon as a whole and whatever questions they wanted feedback on. One of those questions is, "How much do we spend on streaming services" which you can see why some people would believe that Watcher is going down that path of starting their own service.

But- they are still a young company, so I doubt that.

THEORY NUMBER TWO AND MY ULTIMATE THEORY:

Want to know what I really think? Well, I believe this whole announcement is for-

Watcher 2.0: the relaunch.

Now stay with me as you may be confused about what I actually mean. Basically, I think that Watcher is not exactly starting over, but allowing the company to have the launch they deserved.

Not saying that the company had a terrible launch back in 2020 (even though I wasn't there for that oops newbie here)... but it was 2020- everyone was royally fucked in 2020.

Watcher? Well, many projects and shows were killed off before they even had the chance to shine. Rest in peace to Homemade, Spooky Small Talk, and of course- Weird Wonderful World... you'll be missed.

With that, the plans the three boys (Ryan, Shane, and Steven if you were unaware of the CEOs) had for Watcher were just thrown out the window and the rest of 2020 for the company was just flying by the seat of their pants. Even after 2020, they still had no clear path on what would happen next with the company barely staying afloat.

Ya know the story already-

"If Ghost Files flopped there would be no Watcher yada yada yada-"

But Ghost Files has had 2 pretty successful seasons with a 3rd on the way, plus Mystery Files has done pretty well with its 2 seasons. The company overall seems to be in wonderful standing!

With it being in better standings than ever allows for more wiggle room in projects and possibly a new launch. A makeover or well-

a do-over, if you will.

To support this theory I will talk about subtle changes in branding, websites, and support from "external sources".

Let's start with branding because it's easy.

First is the most obvious one which is the hard launch of the new intro/outro that is absolutely baller (an amazing job well done Jared!):

A more subtle rebrand that I noticed was how on the official Watcher Instagram they have reorganized and themed the Instagram Highlights:

There may be more rebranding hints that I have missed- but I am only one person so deal with it.

To add to the idea of rebranding is the changing of web domains. The big one on everyone's mind is www.watchertv.com with this ominous countdown:

So the contents of this website? Unknown, but could be conferred by another past instance from Watcher; the merch website.

As publicly stated, Watcher had to move website domains as they were switching merch companies. So the merch site went from the OG www.watcherstore.com over to www.watcherstuff.com.

If the merch store can move domains, then it's possible the official Watcher Entertainment website could be changing domains from www.watcherentertainment.com to www.watchertv.com... or it's just an off chute website of the main site. I'm just throwing this theory out there because they don't really utilize the main website that often.

Yes, it has been updated for tour dates and for the recent podcasts, but most of the pictures on the website only go up to the launch of Ghost Files season 1 (which is 2022) and then all the way back to launch days (2020).

It still advertises merch that belonged to the old site and is currently not available on the new site:

Promoting season 4 of Puppet History when we are on season 6 and hopefully soon to be season 7:

And if you go to the shows tab on the website, Mystery Files and Survival Mode are missing.

All in all, the website is not fully utilized to its max potential BUT they are launching a whole new website??... with this much hype surrounding it?...

Why?

"Why?" is possibly what you are thinking right now, right?

Well if the theory that this is a relaunch of Watcher, then possibly, on April 19th, 2024;

We are getting a whole new slate of shows.

Just like how Watcher first launched with the first-ever trailer for the company posted on December 9th, 2019.

A trailer video highlighting the new slate.

And yes, this is quite an ambitious thought/theory of mine, but it seems reasonable too!

Watcher as a company was screwed out of a normal launch than most other YouTube channels. Who was really prepared for a global pandemic to strike in this century? No one. It stunted the potential growth of Watcher and possibly led to many projects being dropped and forgotten about. As they had to focus on everything they could possibly do during a pandemic.

Plus have we not forgotten that Steven is having his own show releasing soon with Andrew and Adam? That is huge having the Worth It Boys reuniting! And Steven did say on the recent Patreon livestream that Andrew and Adam are officially working for Watcher which means they are in for the long run.

I also made a post about Sara Rubin promoting all of this on her own socials. Now this could just be a case of an amazing wife supporting her husband and his company- but I had other thoughts too.

My thoughts are that Sara is promoting this big announcement because she is also a part of it in some way, shape, or form. She has guest starred on Puppet History like many lovable favorites as Joyce, Jermaine, Kate, and others that I don't have the time to list. But she's also worked behind the camera as the director of Pretty Historic.

Possibly, Sara is directing and/or producing one of the many new shows that would be a part of this new slate.

It would make sense as the boys wanted this company to showcase many other creators and their passions/voices. They never wanted Watcher to just be them, and they have tried branching out with Worth a Shot and Pretty Historic. And not saying those two failed, but they launched at a time were Watcher was still trying to stay afloat after the rocky pandemic start. Now they have the wiggle room!

Plus Shane and Steven have stated on a Patreon livestream that they always wanted to produce an art show... well Sara is pretty artsy.

Also adding to the livestream, I asked if they would do art content on Watcher- but I asked that with sports as the other content in question, and well the boys just went on talking about how sports and Watcher fans don't click, and how well Buzzfeed Unsolved Sports did not... so they ignored the art question and there is that.

OH! And to add to Patreon live stream, someone asked if there will be a Joyce show on Watcher (because we stan Joyce in this household), and the boys all seemed to agree with us. That they would love for Joyce to host a show on Watcher, so that could be on the slate or a new future possibility.

Also, I've noticed in this year's releases there are "new" names in the the description for the credits. Mainly just old faces from the BuzzFeed days like Patrick Ward editing some of Survival Mode. Possibly Watcher is hiring more to the crew to help aid in this new launch!

But that is my theory, that Watcher is taking back the opportunity that was stripped from them at the start. They have the stability to do so and are seizing the moment.

Carpe diem or whatever the cool kids say.

Also peep Ryan's fit from the most recent episode of Podwatcher:

let's just zoom in...

Oh would you look at that, he's wearing the Launch Team t-shirt from when the company first launched and was only available for the first week/month (correct me if I'm wrong remember I'm a noob).

And if I'm being completely honest, I have not seen any of the guys wear the early days of Watcher merch in the past year. I could be wrong, but this could be a sign related to the news. A small, subtle hint... or I'm just reaching but hey- I grew up with MatPat, okay?

But HEY-

That's just a theory.

A Watcher Theory!

Thank you for reading my late night rambles as literally this whole day has been consumed by this whole tease.

If you have any thoughts on this theory or anything you like to add please comment, reblog, or even send me an ask! I would love to hear your own thoughts and possibly work together on theorizing what the hell Watcher is cooking up!

Also if there are any typos or places within this writing that don't make sense, I'm sorry. I'll probably reread this after work tomorrow and notice all my mistakes, so expect edits to be made on this over time.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I will see you on April 19th, 2024 Watcherinas!

Fritz out.