Smosh Hires MTV Vet Cory Midgarden as YouTube Sketch Comedy Channel’s First-Ever Chief Content Officer (EXCLUSIVE)

Popular web sketch comedy company Smosh has hired former MTV Entertainment Studios exec Cory Midgarden as the brand’s first-ever chief content officer.

In his newly created role, Midgarden will oversee Smosh’s content strategy and development, talent and casting, brand and marketing, and partnerships. This encompasses Smosh’s YouTube channels and broader content ecosystem, including series, tentpole events, and live shows, with an emphasis on audience-first programming.

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Most recently serving as vice president of digital, social and streaming content at Paramount’s MTV Entertainment Studios, Midgarden will lead Smosh’s development of originals and new formats, with a focus on “regular, talent-driven concepts designed to grow into long-running franchises across multiple platforms.” Smosh emphasizes this will include “continued investment in casting and talent, featuring a diverse mix of established cast and new comedic voices.”

Midgarden with report to Smosh CEO Alessandra Catanese, who currently leads the company co-founded by Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla more than 20 years ago.

Smosh is bringing on Midgarden at a time of unprecedented growth for the digital media company, which is expanding its operational infrastructure with a new, larger production facility.

Boasting more than 20 billion lifetime video views, 45.4 million YouTube subscribers, and 31 million social followers, Smosh is known for its series including “Bit City,” Smosh Pit’s “Smosh Reads Reddit Stories” and “Culinary Crimes,” SmoshCast’s “Smosh Mouth,” Smosh Alike’s “URL” and “Assumptions,” and Smosh Games’ “Board AF.” Smosh is also building out its live productions, including “We’re All Gonna Die,” “Smosh: The Live Sitcom” and “Smosh Hospital.”

During his time at Paramount, Midgarden expanded MTV’s digital footprint for events including the Video Music Awards and shows like “Wild ‘N Out” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and developed creator-led programming with talent including Liza Koshy, Bretman Rock and Tana Mongeau.

“Smosh has gotten to a place where our digital content is very strong, very successful, very profitable,” Catanese told Variety. “We’re so fortunate and grateful and blessed to be in this position, and as Anthony, Ian and I shape up the future of the company, we started thinking about our 10, three and one-year plans, and how we wanted to create more premium quality in our brand. So the goal for Smosh is to be a premium comedy brand known in households across the country. And when we thought about that, we thought we need a programming executive to come in and help us elevate what we do in every way, shape and form. Not like fix something that’s broken, but instead, come in and take what’s working well for us and help us decide, what do we need to do to grow something that already exists? And what do we need to develop and sell externally so that Smosh can be represented in the traditional industry just as much as in the digital industry?”

Catanese added: “We no longer see Smosh as a digital native company. We are a media and production company, and we would like to venture into the spaces where we can really show the industry what we’re capable of. And that’s exactly who Cory is — the right person to help us elevate everything that we’re doing in that way. And he’s already made such an incredible impact in the few months that he’s been at this company that I am sure we are with the right person to really elevate Smosh’s offerings.”

“Growing up as a gay kid, I didn’t often see myself reflected in what I was watching, and that’s what really drew me to MTV, originally, where I worked previously,” Midgarden said. “Smosh has that same feeling. It’s a space where people show up for themselves, and audiences see what’s reflected in a really authentic way. So I think that my background just with MTV/Paramount in the creator space, I think it really nicely ties in with everything we’re doing here at Smosh.”

“Cory gets what makes Smosh tick,” Smosh co-founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla said in a statement. “We’re about creating comedy people connect with, rooted in friendship, both in front of and behind the camera. He immediately leaned into that, bringing a level of structure and ambition needed to help us grow more intentionally and take bigger swings.”