The Kevin Langue Show on YouTube has amassed over five million subscribers over the last few years thanks to the dynamic between the host and the regular panel of comedians, which included Denny Love, Herman Wrice and Aaron Branch. Each week, the group typically plays a game in which they invite a guest to join them, and they all guess who among a group of strangers is lying. Some video titles include "5 Gay Guys vs 1 Straight Guy" or "Match the Wives to Their Husbands."
But just after the show began a streaming deal with Netflix, it shook up the panel in a way that angered and confused fans.
In Saturday's episode titled "5 Dumb Babies vs 1 Genius Baby," Langue introduced the concept of a "rotating panel" in the video's pinned comment. "You’re
gonna see a mix of familiar faces, new faces, and maybe even some big surprises," the comment reads. "I really wanna keep bringing even more amazing friends, comedians, and fellow creators on the show!! Especially people who are insanely talented but haven’t gotten the attention they deserve." He then listed a long list of dream guest stars, including Keke Palmer, Bob the Drag Queen, Bad Bunny, Ella Langley and more.
The comments section was filled with replies from fans upset about the shake-up. "I don't want A panel, I want MY panel," one person wrote. "Ain’t a soul ask for a rotating panel."
Then eagle-eyed fans noticed that the regular panelists, Wrice, Love and Branch, were no longer following Langue on Instagram and didn't speak out until they put out a joint statement in a post. "Family, the feeling you may be experiencing of confusion and sadness is truly a shared one. We value you all so much. You have changed our lives in some unimaginable ways, and for that reason, you’re owed an explanation," the statement read. "Unfortunately, there is only so much we are at liberty to share at this time."
The three comedians explained that they have not been involved in the show for some time and have no plans to return any time soon. In a letter addressed to the three of them that Langue posted on Instagram, he said he hasn't spoken to them since August, and the rift began because, before they started filming, he received a letter from attorneys representing the trio "saying you weren't going to come film unless your contracts were renegotiated."
"That was the first time I was told there was even a problem. We responded right away so I could understand your needs and work toward a resolution, but all that your lawyers told me was that you wanted more," Langue wrote. "No one would say how much more you were asking for or give us any specific terms or demands you expected from me. To this day, I am still in the dark about what you want, and I have not heard from any of you again until your recent posts.”
He explained to the fans that he decided to bring in a new panel to keep the show's release from being delayed. "Canceling all of that last minute doesn’t just affect me or the four of us. It affects an entire group of people who had nothing to do with what was happening between us. So I made the difficult decision to film with a new panel. I didn’t think it was fair to ask everyone to absorb the consequences of a situation they had nothing to do with," he wrote.
The letter ended with him saying, "As you can imagine, I’ve felt betrayed, lost and honestly, just … depressed. Meanwhile, it feels like you’ve ganged up on me and launched a smear campaign to deliberately mislead and confuse people with passive-aggressive posts, empty insinuations, and fake narratives."
On Wednesday, the trio issued another statement saying they did not plan to publicly discuss their contract negotiations, but since Langue put it out there, there was more to the story. "We were blindsided by a gigantic Netflix deal and were not given much of a heads-up. The reason we had to get lawyers involved was because everything business-wise, Kevin insists goes through his lawyer."
The trio claimed Langue kept the Netflix deal a secret from them, and they'd only found out about it right before the announcement, after they'd already filmed episodes of the YouTube show that will also be premiering on Netflix at the same time, and they were set to film more. When the group asked Langue what their end of the deal looked like, they wrote they were told Langue would get back to them, but he never did. "We refuse to let any narrative be spun in any direction in any way that makes us look like we were not willing to make it work," they wrote. "Unfortunately, the power was not in our hands."
They end the letter writing, "We're proud of what we created together. As for the three of us – we're good. We're still brothers, we're still laughing, and apparently y'all aren't getting rid of us that easily."
USA TODAY has reached out to Langue, Netflix, Love, Wrice and Branch for further comment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Kevin Langue Show' changed its format, and fans are angry
