Sam Denby

Sam Denby (born March 17, 1998) is an American YouTuber, best known for creating the edutainment YouTube channels Wendover Productions, Half as Interesting, and Extremities, and the travel competition show Jet Lag: The Game. Across all of Denby's channels, he has accumulated more than 1 billion views and more than 7 million subscribers.

Sam Denby
Personal information
Born (1998-03-17) March 17, 1998[‡ 1][‡ 2]
Washington, D.C., United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationYouTuber
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2015–present
GenreEducational entertainment
Subscribers
    • 4.22 million (Wendover Productions)
    • 2.48 million (Half as Interesting)
    • 527 thousand (Jet Lag: The Game)
    • 164 thousand (Extremities)
    • 56.6 thousand (Sam from Wendover)
Total views
    • 623 million (Wendover Productions)
    • 566 million (Half as Interesting)
    • 37 million (Jet Lag: The Game)
    • 1.56 million (Extremities)
    • 726 thousand (Sam from Wendover)
Website
100,000 subscribers2016
1,000,000 subscribers2018
Last updated: July 16, 2023

Career

Wendover Productions

Created in 2010, Denby's primary channel is Wendover Productions. As of June 16, 2023, that channel has over 4.09 million subscribers and more than 610 million total video views.[1] His videos most commonly feature the topics of logistics, most notably those of aviation, as well as geography, economics,[2] and military. The Wendover Productions video about tourism in Iceland received significant attention from Iceland's national newspapers.[3] Wendover Productions is based in Aspen, Colorado.[4]

Half as Interesting

Created on August 26, 2017, Denby's second YouTube channel, Half as Interesting creates "Education-y explainer videos that are almost good enough to watch". As of June 16, 2023, the channel has 2.45 million subscribers and 397 videos which have gained over 551 million views.[5]

He covers many topics on this channel as on Wendover Productions, including geography, economics, military, and aviation, but with a greater focus on short-form content delivered in a sardonic style.[5]

Extremities

In June 2019, Denby created a scripted podcast called Extremities about the logistics of living in the world's most isolated and populated locations.[6] The show's format has since been modified into short documentaries exclusive to the streaming service Nebula with the same concept.

Jet Lag: The Game

"It is a brutally exhausting show to film. Imagine a bad travel day where you end up waiting between flights on connections and going in and out of airports all day."[7]

Sam Denby

Denby's YouTube channel Jet Lag: The Game hosts a travel competition show created by Denby and Half as Interesting's writers, Ben Doyle (the son of writer Larry Doyle) and Adam Chase.[7] Inspired by The Amazing Race, the season usually consists of four players (with the fourth player being another YouTuber). The show currently consists of:

  • The first season was a variant of Connect Four (guest-starring Brian McManus of Real Engineering)—described by Wired as "what might be the world’s largest Connect Four game ever constructed"—where the aim is to create a vertical or horizontal line of four American states.[7]
  • The second season, Circumnavigation, is a race where two teams must circumnavigate the world in 100 hours (guest-starring Joseph Pisenti of RealLifeLore).[7]
  • The third season, Tag EUR It, is a game of tag played across Western Europe, mostly in Germany, France and Belgium.[‡ 3]
  • The fourth season, Battle 4 America, has the goal of claiming the most American states in four days (with Brian McManus returning as the guest star).
  • The fifth season, Race to the End of the World, is a board game-like race set in New Zealand, with the goal to cross the country's two main islands from north to south (guest-starring Toby Hendy of Tibees).
  • The sixth season, Capture the Flag Across Japan, is a game of capture the flag set in Japan and divided into three rounds, with each round expanding the gameplay area and starting from Tokyo Station (guest-starring Scotty Allen of Strange Parts).
  • The seventh season, Tag EUR It 2, is a sequel to Tag EUR it (Season 3).[‡ 4][8]
  • The eight season will feature guest-star Michelle Khare. The show will be set in the United States, and will be a new competition format.[9]

The show was nominated for Best Editing at the 13th Streamy Awards.

All air travel on the show is offset by a factor of 10 via Gold Standard carbon credits.[10] As of October, 2023, the channel has over 540 thousand subscribers and more than 40 million total video views.[‡ 5] The episodes are released on Nebula earlier than YouTube, causing large spikes to Nebula's usage traffic.[11]

Nebula

On August 25, 2023, Nebula announced that they had appointed Denby as their chief content officer.[12]

Personal life

Denby was "born and raised" in Washington, D.C..[‡ 6] In 2018, Denby stated he had been living in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the past two years for university studies at the University of Edinburgh.[‡ 7]: 1:32  As of April 2018, he was studying international business.[‡ 8] Denby stated he has lived in Colorado as of 2020, somewhere around Aspen.[‡ 9][‡ 10] Through Standard, he became a minority owner in the streaming service Nebula in 2020.[‡ 11]

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Work Result Ref.
2023 13th Streamy Awards Editing Jet Lag: The Game Nominated [13]

References

Citations
  1. Youtube.com. "Wendover Productions - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  2. Dudley, David (August 19, 2020). "Bad Trains, Explained". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  3. Hafstað, Vala (June 7, 2019). "Iceland's Tourism Explosion Explained". Iceland Monitor. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  4. Reynolds, Jacqueline. "Film takes a deep dive into river issues". Aspen Daily News. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  5. "Half as Interesting - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
  6. Scott, Richard (July 5, 2019). "'Extremities': taking you to the world's most isolated places" (Audio). Radio New Zealand. The Podcast Hour. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  7. Anderson, Pearse. "This Travel Game Takes Connect Four to the Extreme". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  8. Maas, Jennifer (October 11, 2023). "'Jet Lag: The Game' Hosts on How a 'Strategic Blunder' and 'Two of the Rarest Moments' in the Entire Series Led to Season 7 Finale Twist". Variety.
  9. Maas, Jennifer (October 23, 2023). "'Jet Lag: The Game' Season 8 Set at Nebula With 'Challenge Accepted' Star Michelle Khare as Guest Contestant (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  10. Griffiths, James (September 16, 2022). "Are travel-centric reality shows like The Amazing Race worth their carbon footprint?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  11. Rose, JSam (January 13, 2023). "Jet Lag: The Traffic". Retrieved October 8, 2023.
  12. "Nebula taps Wendover Productions creator Sam Denby as its chief content officer". Tubefilter. August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  13. Brant, Brian (August 27, 2023). "Streamy Awards 2023: Complete Winners List". People. Retrieved August 28, 2023.

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. "We have no idea why he's using the ruler - 1. The chase begins". Nebula TV. February 16, 2022. for DOB, see timestamp 1:00
  2. "Crime Spree: The World's Most Illegal Game Show". Nebula TV. Half as Interesting.
  3. "We Played a 72 Hour Game of Tag Across Europe". Jet Lag: The Game. YouTube. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  4. Denby, Sam [@wendoverpro] (April 15, 2023). "Good news, we found another country with trains" (Tweet). Retrieved August 27, 2023 – via Twitter.
  5. "Jet Lag: The Game - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  6. "We Raced To Visit The Most US States In 100 Hours". YouTube. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  7. Denby, Sam (March 27, 2018). A Moderately Successful Face Reveal (Video). Sam from Wendover. Event occurs at 1:25. Retrieved April 6, 2018 – via YouTube.
  8. Denby, Sam (March 27, 2018). "Economics has too much math. I study International Business". Reddit. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  9. "Life update: I've moved to Colorado Pictured: Skiing, a week ago". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  10. "In case you didn't know, I'm a #influencer". TikTok. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  11. How a Small Group of Creators Built a $150 Million Business (Video). Wendover Productions. June 15, 2023. Event occurs at 15:10. Retrieved June 15, 2023 – via YouTube.

Further reading
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