The Slow and Painful Decline of TKOR Channel 

Not sure about others, but for me i stopped watching because it stopped being about learning about science or doing strange experiments and started being more and more about "hey look at all this *insert sweets here* that we have." Looking back at the channel now, it has become almost entirely clickbaity titles and thumbnails and seems to be even less about actual science. My personal guess is that while the algorithm made it hard to attract views, the content also changed to be targeted at a younger audience. (Bright colors, lots of candy, smaller experiments that can be done inside or at least somewhat safely.) This probably alienated quite a few of the viewers who had the same problem i did with the direction of the channel which reduced the amount of views the channel was getting even more. Dont get me wrong, I loved some of the content they were still producing but it started to feel less like a science channel with some food experiments and more like a food experiment channel with some extra bits thrown in. (At least when I stopped watching which was in late 2019.) Looking at the channel now, it seems to be staying afloat somewhat but it takes two months for a channel of that size to break 100k views on most of their content videos which isnt great. Edit: looking back at the videos now, the titles became far more clickbaity just a year ago so im not sure what happened behind the scenes there.

It was genuinely painful for me to check back in on tkor and see that my favorite science teachers channel had become a budget 5-minute crafts

The worst thing they have recently done is getting rid of Nate and Callie, the original legacy-keepers after Grant's passing...

Grant brought actual science to us with real data. After he left us us the science turned into, "ooh look at the pretty colors" R.I.P. Grant

To me, Nate BECAME the TKOR, along with Callie. I'm glad that Nate still keeps up with Grant's legacy on his own channel and has Callie team up with him for the awesome experiments that they do. He might not do the same things as what he did on TKOR, but the videos he makes are entertaining.

TKORs worst mistake was letting Nate and Cali go, their personalities are what made me stay when Grant was moving away from the camera and im pretty sure thats why a lot of others left too. NFTI (Nate from the internet) is a really good channel to watch if you like the Nate/Cali era of TKOR as Cali sometimes guest stars there

I remember when grant, about a year or so before his passing, made the decision to stop making the movies and have other hosts. He did this because he wanted more time with his family, its almost like he knew what his future was going to be and wanted to spend his last moments with those he loved.

I still remember the passing of grant he was definetly the best host and ever since it has been going downhill. Honestly nate and calli were also amazing but the newer hosts (forgot their names) just doesnt feel the same. I used to watch tkor every day but now i rarely even look up the channel its just not the same. Anyways amazing content keep it up!

I cried when the news Grant died, even now it is sad to see what the channel has become. Callie's firing to Nate's subsequent letting go was the last straw, I really do wish that it was different. But reality is often disappointing, and things can't really change so easily. Yet, it is happy to see Nate and Callie doing their own stuff and them collabbing(?) together. I really can't express how much disappointment that I feel currently. Hopefully things will get better but this is quite unlikely. Rest well, Grant, Nate and Callie, I hope you will still do stuff and continue the legacy of Grant. Even the videos Nate does is still more TKOR than TKOR.

At least Nate still uploads on his own channel. Without him, this would honestly make me cry.

I just looked at The King of Random’s channel and man their subscriber to view ratio is abysmal. RIP to their channel, you were right about the slow and painful decline. Changing the hosts was probably a huge hit to the channel, Nate still gets tons of views on his channel, way more than TKOR so that should tell you something.

It wasn't the same after Grant passed away but at least we had Nate and after he left that was when everything completely fell apart Grace has destroyed the channel in every possible way I don't understand why they don't just memoralize it at this point at least show Grant some respect for all his hard work ffs 🤦‍♂️

After Grant left my interest started to taper of. To me he was and still is the only King of Random. Nate tried but in my eyes he couldn't fill those shoes and I don't think anybody can.

Thomas I had a craving to watch an old TKOR video like Grant making a furnace and I was immediately disappointed at the videos I saw on the channel I then looked to see if they had a playlist of all the original videos so I searched the decline of TKOR and stumbled across a truly beautiful and high quality production from a now 40 subscriber channel. You put to words a feeling that so many of us had and took a year long legacy and was able to summarize it a video that went quicker than it felt. I believe you have lots of potential with your channel and I really look forward to your next upload.

Poor grant he worked so hard to build up an amazing channel and a great following only for it to be diluted to no end. Grant is a legend and a great humble guy RIP dude.

I started watching way back when the channel was still called "Grant Thompson" with the old style title card and the almost ASMR like voice over. When Grant left the channel, I was disappointed, but Nate and Callie did as good a job at keeping it alive as they could. And then I got an upload notification from CodysLab on July 31st, 2019 just titled "Grant is gone." I instantly knew what had happened and my heart sank. After his death, Nate and Callie did their best to carry the torch, but it just wasn't the same. Honestly, they should have bowed out gracefully. If Grant could see what his channel, his legacy has become, I think he'd want to pull the plug too.

Makes a grown man cry to see his childhood flash before his eyes and one of the figures that helped him through it all

them removing nate was kinda stupid in my opinion because i kinda didnt wanna watch them after grant left but now since nate left i feel like they remove the people we get used to seeing

This really is a youtube decline that hits me personally. 10 years ago now, I used to watch all of Grants videos constantly. His channel was basically my favorite at one point. Some of my favorite videos that I remember are the rocket videos and the HHO generator. When he died it was probably the hardest hitting youtuber death Ive experienced, just because of how much I used to watch his channel as a kid. Ever since, the channel has just slowly become a shell of its former self. Part of me wishes they closed the channel when he passed, although I think Nate and Calli did a pretty good job after he was gone (and Im glad that Nates channel is doing pretty good now). But now TKOR is just another generic content farm. Its quite sad to see.

Used to watch during some seriously hard times. Then read on TMZ about his accident. I still watched Nate & Callie. Then the new girl Grace came in and the subjects got boring.. I only remembered TKOR just now popped in my head and found this video. The world is a different place. Innocence has been lost. Rest in Peace Grant TKOR Thompson 👑

I binge watched tkor when it was just grant and forgot about the channel for a couple years I came back and found out that grant had died. Seeing the newer videos put a bad taste in my mouth, they just didn't feel respectful to the original spirit of the channel. It felt like the target demo was children, with the bright thumbnails, uncreative "experiment" type content that didn't push the same envelope, like a more kid friendly backyard scientists clone that felt a bit key-jingling. the current state of the channel really doesn't feel like a tribute to grant but I understand that the revenue was going toward his family so they kinda had to try to game the algorithm

I loved learning from Grant. TKOR now has no real information and has nothing to do with science... Grant's love for learning and sharing what he learned was the success of TKOR.

it was sad today when I looked at the channel to see the view count so low on the videos, so I wanted to see if their was documentation of the downfall and I found your video your video is great! On my old channel I had 85 subs making low quality unedited videos but you make this and have only 30?! Under appreciated talent, well edited good choice of music!

the king of random was my childhood. I watched it every day for years. It's so depressing to see what happened to that channel, i miss you grant im sorry about what happened to your channel. rest in peace.

R.I.P. Grant & TKOR Channel. 😢

Grant was great, nate and callie were amazing the new two I don't even bother to remember their names

It’s a visible effect seen in the views the channel is getting, just scrolling through the channel for 2 minutes I see the channel is averaging around 200k, and the last they hit a million views was a year ago, while when Nate and cali were the focus, they averaged around 600-700k views with often gathering well over a million every other video. I see the change in myself too. I haven’t watched a TKOR video since about mid 2022. And since I’ve gotten interested again into it, I’m only interested in the videos where it’s only Nate and cali.

Thanks for making this video, it's very well done. Really made me think exactly what the final nail in the coffin was for the channel. Personally, I stopped watching TKOR when they let go of Nate and Calli... That has to be the worst decision they could have made for the channel at that point. For me it was the two of them that kept the spirit of TKOR going after Grant's unfortunate passing. As you said they did the best they could to keep it up. Sadly now it seems like nothing more than a shell of its former self trying to clickbait to get more views and it's clearly not working with at this point views averaging around 30-80k per video it seems. I do thoroughly enjoy Nate's channel and it warms my heart to see him doing collabs with Calli from time to time, the two of them have a great dynamic and I wish them all the best.

You should change the title to 'The Slow and Painful Decline of TKOR Channel' because Grant is THE King of Random, and he never declined

Dude I actually completely forgot about him. Its actually insane how much I used to watch his DIY's and try them and fail. Wild.

Grant was like the heart, mind, and soul of tkor. The last time I saw a tkor video with the new hosts it just feels like another video that you'll see everyday on facebook or tiktok.

He used to build almost weapons and now they are just filling up stretch armstrong for the 500th time with water to see what happens 😭

I remember stumbling upon the channel when I saw Grant nearly suffocating himself with open containers of LIN in his car with the windows up. LIN expands to almost 700x as it evaporates. You don’t feel yourself suffocating in a pure nitrogen environment, especially when you’re concentrating on something else like driving. I commented on every video until he started to at least roll the windows down and eventually got a real cryotainer.

Honestly, people complaining about Nate and Callie leaving, but for me the decline happened already a bit after the death. Both of them were still on, but it wasn't random anymore.

My dad is a pilot and got to fly with grant a few times, such a sad decline

I still remember a video grant did years back when he was showing off dry ice and how dangerous it can be, he used a plastic bottle and shoved dry ice into it and closed the lid, it exploded and little me had to try it. I asked my mom over and over again if we can buy some. I miss grant, thank you for making everyones' childhoods on youtube better

May Grant rest in peace. A husband, father, and teacher. His legacy deserves better.

I got to meet Grant, we chatted for about 10 minutes. Then I ran into him over a year later, and he remembered me and my name! It blew my mind, not only was he brilliant, but humble and down to earth! His impact on the younger generation of scientist and engineers does not get the credit he deserves.

it stopped being TKOR when they decided to get rid of Nate and Calli and just turn into 5 second crafts. Nate's channel still keeps up the spirit of what Grant envisioned for the channel, and im really glad he's still occasionally making stuff with Calli.

I found out about Grant's passing on accident since I hadn't kept up on the channel in a while. It was about a month or two after he passed when I found out, and when I did, I grieved over the loss of a childhood content creator, knowing that the unique content he created wouldn't ever be the same without him. I cherish my childhood memories, and when one of them gets destroyed, it tears me apart inside. I knew about TKOR for years, easily before I was even 13, and those videos were fascinating. And now that he's gone... life just feels, different. I honestly think this loss had damaged me emotionally, losing someone I cherished was devastating to me, even though I wasn't that caught up on the channel, knowing that I could go back and see so much new and unique content would be really nice to binge for a while. But... I just can't. It doesn't feel the same, it's not The King of Random I truly know... it's not *him.*

I just checked their channel and the viewership fucking tanked like HOLY

I grew up watching the og TKOR. He inspired me to learn to create and learn to solve problems. He taught me to improvise with what I had. He sparked the flame of curiosity in me that is still burning brightly to this very day! Rest in Peace Grant. You will forever be missed.

Grant put so much work and effort into turning The Kind of Random into something that could survive without him. And when it came time for it to do that, his wife just threw everything away.

Back in his early days his channel was great. The HHO generator video was my favorite. He had such a good design for it. The spot welder, rocket fuel, so many good science projects. Then he lost his ways and became obsessed with farming clicks and views and didn't really care about teaching science any more.

Wow dude! This is really well made for such a small RU-vidr. You earned a sub and are very underrated.

I started watching TKOR a short while before Grant passed. It felt like losing a mentor and close friend. His passing, all these years later, still feels the same for the millions he impacted with his spectacular ideas and videos. Rest in Peace, Grant Thompson.

Even as someone who didn't watch his videos I remember being absolutely f****** shocked when he died to be honest that really says something about a person

I made the popsicle crossbow in elementary school with my dad. fondest memory I have from that era of youtube.

The last TKOR video I watched was their collab with The Lockpicking Lawyer, which came closer to Grant-era TKOR than most post-Grant vids. Now, the only reason I'm still subscribed is because I care so little that I can't even be bothered to unsubscribe.

TKOR used to be my favorite RU-vidr growing up, Grant taught me how to make so much fun stuff like pocket slingshots and tmnt ooze. He was the first RU-vidr death I dealt with and I still miss him to this day

It’s crazy how Grant chose Nate and they let him go

This video made me tear up, I used to watch TKOR back in 2016 to keep my mind busy during school, it’s so sad to see a channel I watched every day just die like that

I honestly stopped watching TKOR after learning that Nate had been let go; what it is now is just a complete joke compared to what it use to be; the channel is basically dead when you compare the view count today to what they use to get

Love the video but some of the blurred footage made it hard to watch cause it messed with my eyes, your review was 100 precent correct tough. Long live the old TKOR

Great video! Surprised you don't have more subs. The audio and editing kinda unbalanced but other than that props. I feel like TKOR is going downhill the same route as Buzzfeed..

Firing Nate and Callie is what did it for me.

The video is suprisingly good. Good luck in the algorythm

TKOR was the first ever youtuber I watched when I learned how to use RU-vid at the age of around 10. He didn’t have many videos at that time because he would post fairly rarely but I watched them over and over

really good content, watched through the whole thing and now i miss Grant again.. the channel really isn't the same without him

Such a well made video for such a small youtuber! Earned my sub and a like!

Not to sound sad but i remember showing my father these videos once him and my mom got a divorce. My dad was living couch to couch and then was able to afford a studio apartment. Thinking about it now I used to be ungrateful for the effort my dad put into to just make me and my twin sister feel like a normal family. But me and him made a lot of these projects like the toothpick gun and the pvc blow dart. Now i'm 19 and about to be married and I own my own home. And i'm so proud of my dad's effort. And I hope to be half the dad he was. And i thank TKOR for bringing me and him closer together. I friggin love my pops man.

I can say graduating high school and seeing his videos lead me in to the career and job I have today as a CNC machinist and still influence my hobbies to this day 10years latter.

TKOR started to decline well before it's peak. What started as a channel where Grant just posted cool shit turned into a algorithm hunting mission. Grant didn't want the algorithm to forget his channel so he pumped out videos to stay relevant. Unfortunately they were just preview videos. Coming soon, this cool thing, which in of it self isn't a bad thing, but when he posted 3 or 4 teaser videos because the main video wasn't ready yet, it started to turn off viewers. Grant should have just posted once a month. The format works, some of the best channels only post a few times a year. Think Mark Rober or CGP Grey. Then Grant tried to boost older video views with contests such as, I've hidden clues in these videos, solve the puzzle and win a prize or what colour shirt was I wearing in this old video? It was a blatant and indirect way to get people to watch his old videos over again to boost views. But the underlying problem was Grant was out of ideas. Because Grant had no new ideas but still had to upload videos, new topics were poorly research. He started messing with electricity and began presenting it as an expert and ended up showing people how to do some very unsafe things like splicing in a 3 amp switch into a 15 amp extension cord. That is a fire waiting to happen. It came to no surprise that when you keep doing stupid and unsafe things that both people will complain and eventually something will happen. That's when Grants legal troubles started with the fireworks incident and then Grant did the worst thing you could do, he never addressed it. Speculation about what happened ran wild but no one would clarify what really happened. After that production focused more and more on doing safer fuck around videos. They stopped doing build videos because they weren't bringing in the views but failed to recognize that if you don't build any new things, you have no new tools to play with. The channel turned into a "watch me build the cool new thing" to "watch me fuck around with this old thing" Videos became, lets put "X" in the vacuum chamber and see what happens. Lets put "y" in the furnace and try to melt it. There is a place for that stuff but it's not what the original viewers signed up for. The learning portion died long before Grant did, The original videos inspired ideas and inspired people to try things. The current videos don't do any of that. It might be mildly interesting to watch slime in a vacuum chamber but no one thinks to them self that they need to try it too. Some people might not be able to put their finger on it, but TKOR is what happens when you take a passion and turn it into a business chasing profit and viewership where you cater to the bottom common denominator.

I still remember the summers i spent doing the random weekend projects and all the shenanigans I got into. I loved every second of it and was deeply saddened by grants passing. Seeing what tkor became i was just disappointed my how something so quality and fun could devolve into what it is today.

you are very underrated channel

Went from learning about cool diy projects to 'What happens when you FREEZE DRY CHIPOTLE?' lowkey depressing on how such a good childhood channel got turned into clickbait garbage

14:30 Quit the opposite, it's _all_ of those factors. Everything eventually fades, whether they change or not, novelty wears off and things stop being interesting even if they're exactly the same. Also, RU-vid has become saturated with lots of similar content, but new channels are novel, so they're more exciting. That's just how it is. Look at _Simpsons,_ it was king of the world for a while, but eventually dropped. Nothing lasts forever and there's nothing anyone can do about that. 🤷 (Even Pewdiepie is old news, even Mr. Beast eventually will be.) They added a couple of other guys but they couldn't work because of the pandemic and had to remote in a few times before just giving up. Now, it's just Grace by herself (and Josh the camerman), but she recently left and moved to New York, and now the channel is just her doing whatever she wants, it's basically her own personal channel at this point. There is a podcast "Random Theory", but that's just Grace vamping about different topics. I think it's safe to say the original channel is officially finished. Personally, I definitely stopped enjoyingg it when Grant left because the nature of the videos changed dramatically. Originally, it was Grant showing how to make stuff that you could do yourself, it was instructional, like how to make your own spot-welder or IronMan arc-reactor simulant. Later, it was just "hey, watch us do stuff" which for me, is uninteresting. The channel became like _MythBusters_ which original started out, well, busting myths, but later devolved into just making fires and explosions; it stopped being interesting and intellectual and started catering more to children. 😒

This is the best small channel. Thank you for the effort.

TKOR died when it became about the content, not the process. end of story. as soon as grant stopped making stuff for himself and his own interested the channel was already doomed. rest in peace Grant, your legacy lives on in our hearts, not on YT.

TKOR was not my favorite channel back then, because it wasn't so much deeply based on science as I would have liked it to be. But now when I look back, the quality and educational values of his content just doesn't compare to what we encounter on the recommendation feed these days. Rest in peace Grant.

It's those new people they hired that destroy the channel

Grant had such a big impact on me. I started my own RU-vid channel based on one of his projects. It's really sad to see his legacy tarnished so quickly.

Used to watch the channel back in 2019, now I can't watch the channel anymore cause it's no longer what It was, Grant wouldn't be happy in the direction of the channel now, it's dead, no more views no subscriber growth, it's now a glorified troom troom and 5 minute crafts channel

I never realized that he was born and grew up in the city right next to mine. Wish I could’ve met him. I remember watching every single video after school and work.

Im going to be honest i preferred nate a callie over grant because having 2 people made it less here is how to make something and a showcase and more like a few freinds joking and messing about while still having enough information packed bits for it to always be interesting

Whenever I think of something cool do and I search it on youtube and see Grant, I always feel sad that TKOR bacame watered down so much, they became a craft channel.

Man.... That man built his channel and had a unique set of followers. Including myself. Kept up with that dude for years. Then I seen the video of him passing away. Nate and Callie took over and kept his legacy and original idea of the channel alive somewhat. I followed until they booted them both. after over a year I recently checked out a new video and was horrified to see how bland, click bait and basic the channel is now. It resembles ZERO of the original channel. If you were to bring my past self when grant started the channel and showed me a modern tkor video, id have no idea this was even remotely close to tkor. I'd have thought it was a crappy pbs kids science show. Grant is probably rolling in his grave right now. What they've done is border line disrespectful to grant. They lost me and many other OG viewers.

What got me to stop was them letting calli and nate leave, the way they acted and communicated was one of the best parts to there videos, i just new something bad was happening when i started seeing new people show up in the videos and that got me to stop

Grant callie and nate is my favorite but the newer people made me not watch tkor anymore

I actually met grant at the 2014 SLC comic con and was a huge fan of the channel. After his tragic passing the channel changed and didn’t feel the same.

I think the nail might have been drilled right into the coffin after Grace started trying to force people to believe the changes to the channel were “good”

for me it was them getting rid or nate and callie. i checked in one day and they weren’t there so i left.. im sure the new ppl there are amazing but after losing one familiar face losing 2 others is where i drew the line.

Because they abandoned what Grant was all about. End of story. And the sad part is, they have his entire catalog to reference for ideas and they don't do it. It's the definition of insanity that they are doing and they are paying for it.

It’s now 2023 November 1st. Been so long without him. Rest in Peace to a legend, teacher, loving father, and science enthusiast ❤🕊️🌅

Nothing against Nate but the channel started declining as soon as Grant started bringing other people on. The viral content grant had created is what had the subs and views coming in. The people they have now are terrible.

Me and my dad both made the mini metal foundry… it’s still a hobby me and my dad do till this day!

Just went over there and it is some chick that doesn't do real research on the video topics and more focused on shaking for the thirsty simps. It sucks.. 12.5M subs and only 40k views.. TKOR is dead.. 😭

"Social Media Influencer"/"Content Creator" is still a young business model. We're just now starting to see what happens when content creators pass away. Does the business cease to exist? Does someone else take over? Granted handling stuff like this is not new (wills, probate, trusts, etc.), society is just starting to see more and more of this.

RIP Grant. and thank you for making this, the new guys tore this channel down to shreds, i still watched it till Callie and Nate were on the channel.

This really hurt me because he died so close to where i lived. I pretty much heard it on the local news before the video came out and it kinda broke me at the time. It was pretty feeling like i lost a loved one for the very first time.

I'm glad i found out TKOR before grant died and experienced the OG content.

When Grant stopped being in the videos less and less I stopped watching and once he died I stopped completely, miss you Grant you truly taught me some interesting things

He was honestly one of the people who had me wanting to create stuff as a kid and had me so into science and engineering things. I was super sad when he passed:( RIP Grant.

As a kid who subscribed to TKOR in 2012, I loved the style of the videos that Grant created. The channel as it sits now is a complete joke of what Grant wanted for his channel to be. I just recently looked back to the TKOR channel and its ONLY the one chick who ultimately replaced all of the "new" people after Nate and Cali. Even then all of them were soulless and non energetic vibes and would react forcefully to the things that most people already knew (because of Grant). That made me un-subscribe as much as it hurt to do so. It was like telling a good old friend to walk out of your life. Its just an empty shell of what it used to be. Its all "click-bait-vlog-style-read-your-questions". I wish they would redo all of the weekend projects, but alas that won't happen because that's not "trendy" anymore. I enjoyed the memories and your video. Thanks. cheers!

it's kinda heart breaking to see the channel shift so much, but i understand that grant's wife is also a widow now and raising his kids so not only she couldn't really do what grant did back then but she also need to maintain the channel by what she can to support the family income

For me, it was when Grant passed. I couldn't watch it anymore it just didn't feel the same.

After grants passing they were forced to go a more 5 minute hacks kinda path, that was the beginning, and then getting rid of Nate and Callie was the final nail........ but Nate has his own channel and brings Callie on often. R.I.P Grant, you were the man, teaching us all kinds of awesome things we could do with less than 10 bucks of materials

Didn’t know he died lowkey forgot about this channel… crazy life’s fragile rip ❤️

I've had this screen name since the beginning of RU-vid and always felt early TKOR was close to my heart.

Jarom, the new guy seems to be getting back to the roots.