The popular internet series Channel 5 is getting the HBO treatment treating fans of Andrew Callaghan’s interviews to a bigger budget
If you’re aware of the work of Andrew Callaghan, you’ll the ridiculous and hilarious interviews he records for his popular YouTube documentary series Channel 5. Callaghan has tangoed with some of the strangest groups in America, everything from pick-up artist conventions to Miami spring breaker and even a brief stint in Ukraine after the outset of the Russian invasion.
Callaghan has clearly been making waves, with over 2 million subscribers on youtube, now the documentarian has gotten the attention of Hollywood. His show is now getting the HBO treatment, the television network giant acquired Channel 5’s dispatch from the January 6th insurrection, and A24 is producing the documentary. Callaghan himself will serve as director and executive producer of the documentary, along with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of Tim & Eric. The film will follow Callaghan’s “wild RV journey through America in the months leading up to the January 6 Capitol Riot,” Variety reported.
It will be interesting to see how the increased budget will translate on screen. Callaghan’s guerilla-style vox-pop documentary style lends it a homespun charm (despite the amount of work into it behind the scene). However, Channel 5’s style is reminiscent of popular gonzo journalist-type figures like Eric Andre’s street stunts so he is sure to be in safe hands. We’ve seen what kind of difference HBO backing can have in a production value department, turning Nathan Fielder’s charming but scrappy Nathan For You for Comedy Central into the abso-utley bananas high budget bonanza that was The Rehearsal.
Anyone following Callaghan from the start of his Youtube career will know his channel went under the banner, All Gas no Brakes but had to drop the moniker and channel after being dismissed over contract issues with Doing Things Media with whom he was partnered with on YouTube. After finally finding his own footing with his own brand it is exciting to see how Callaghan’s crazy documentaries will grow from here.
Freelance writer and journalist with an MA in English literature. He's been known to cry at sunsets and laugh in the face of ennui. Not lover nor fighter, but a man and barely one that.
