Blonde's statement:
https://x.com/Blondes_tweets/status/1847851545049911648
https://nitter.poast.org/Blondes_tweets/status/1847851545049911648
Matt's (sorta) response:
https://x.com/MLChristiansen/status/1847852591868531091
https://nitter.poast.org/MLChristiansen/status/1847852591868531091
If you don't know, the Matt and Blonde Show was a weekly (briefly twice weekly) show going over a handful of noteworthy news stories for the week. Matt Christiansen hosted it on his channel, and it was co-hosted by Blonde. Matt's more of a borderline-autistic conservative, while Blonde is burn-this-shit-down reactionary, so they had a pretty interesting dynamic. One disassembles and analyzes a story, the other just rips it to shreds.
You may also have heard of Matt from the recent Tenet drama, since he was one of the channels under them. As an independent channel, he was always a very thorough investigator, and meticulous about sourcing his arguments. His work was practically spotless, which made it hard for anyone to smear him until the Tenet thing happened.
We'll have to wait until tomorrow to hear Matt's side apparently. Normally I'd back him immediately, but being involved in a phony federal investigation is the kind of pressure that makes most people crack, especially when they have something to lose.
TL;DR: Blonde says she'd have to pull back on important topics for her (likely race and failing democracy) for somewhat unclear reasons, and chose to leave the show instead, Matt says he'd word it differently. It's all very vague as of yet.
I'm kinda surprised how many people are 100% with Matt on this. He's completely right about the workload and fairness of their business partnership, but I think he fumbled handling the conflict really badly. I'm not gonna bother writing entire essays on Youtube personality dramas, but I think people are just being taken more with Matt's practical business attitude rather than listening to what's actually being said.
I'm on Matt's side but, yeah, he fumbled some things. Big time, on the interpersonal issues. I think Blonde was in the wrong, but Matt set the stage for some of that, and bears some of the blame.
And some people seem to be taking advantage of the drama to try to act like it was Blonde's edgy takes that were the problem, when it was an integral part of the show. I hope he doesn't let these people lead him away from edgy content. Although Matt did all the work, Blonde's presence did add spice, and she was an important (if overpaid) component. I do hope he tries to do something similar, and not just get someone who agrees with him. He needs the pushback.
I've commented a few times in the thread, but I'm definitely redpilled at how much pearlclutching there was over Blonde's racism/white nationalism/Nazism etc in the Twitter threads and the chat tonight.
There was way too much "Yay, the evil bigot lady is finally gone" for what's supposedly a based podcast. I thought the racism was supposed to be not a bug but a feature.
Maybe his audience has morphed into more centrist christcucks while I've been away. There were way too many "Me and my wife love you Matt!" chats, no balance and hardly anyone telling Matt that he fucked up, even a little.
I think that’s just because those of us who are pro blonde saw this happen, and realized he would swing back harder into his milquetoast takes and so there’s no reason to watch or comment.
I think Blonde posting everything to twitter after telling Matt she’d keep it low-key was pretty shitty, and deleted most of the sympathy I had for her. Matt can definitely be infuriatingly autistic about things, so I lay some blame about poor communication at his feet but I can also understand feeling betrayed by someone you had such a close working relationship with.
I’m not really surprised most viewers are siding with Matt, I’ve watched their show since Episode Zero and looking back there’s definitely been a marked decline in Blonde’s interest especially once she got married and had kids. I always got the impression her husband didn’t really want her doing the show.
Same.
I only checked Rumble but I didn't really come across any Matt alogs at all.
The only one was a drunk guy claiming Matt's YT mods banned him 4 years ago.
I didn't think Matt came off well tonight in his elaboration on his side of the story, though I'm biased and pro-Blonde.
His explanation regarding his skepticism re: missing their last show together and her seeking medical care for her sprained foot came off as a chud with his "We always go live together unless we're dead" meme.
He also was weasely with his "ultimatum that wasn't an ultimatum but I won't negotiate" circuitous arguments.
Essentially, he says that their business and friendship is ultimately irreparable because of the "betrayal" of her making a Twitter post when he said No. Which is middle school level drama.
He also heavily leaned on the whole "I appreciate everyone of you audience members and I'll never let you down/keep working hard for you, I consider all you callers friends" narratives.
Which to me, came off as wooden and disingenuous, but likely a ploy to circle the wagons of his paypigs. Which seemed to have been successful.
Yeah, as someone much more on the pro-Matt side of things (in style, content, effort, and loyalty, not always politics, to be fair), I think that was definitely his weakest take. It just came off as a little autistic, even. Yeah, Blonde is an admitted hypochondriac, but she really did hurt her foot, and you don't know the full extent of an injury until you get it checked out. "Yeah, she wasn't totally faking" or whatever, is not the angle to take. I don't think she was faking at all. She might not have been as badly injured as she thought, but she still had to go to the hospital...that's what ate up the time. It doesn't matter if her bones were shattered, or a ligament was torn or whatever. You don't know until after. She had a medical incident, and missed some of the show. It happens.
I think it was longstanding - and largely justified - frustration from Matt, but he certainly didn't handle it well. And, again, I say that as someone on his side. I think Blonde threw a bitchfit and blew up a good thing...but you could say similar things about Matt. Blonde had a woman moment...and Matt set up a perfect woman moment by not understanding things and being emotional himself. Whole thing was a mess.
I think that's pretty unfair, though. I think that's legitimately who Matt is, and he's shown that for years. And it's why people like him. Hell, that he was giving her an even split shows that he really values those around him, and that does include the chat.
You are conflating Matt's reverence for his audience with his passiveness/cowardice with his business dealings with his podcast partner.
He admitted tonight that the OG 50/50 split on debut in 2016 was because they started the project on equal footing.
Matt has always done more of the work. That hasn't changed recently.
The problem, much like one caller pointed out, was that his demands were reasonable in a vacuum, but the actual execution sucked.
You can't suddenly demand a change of terms after 8 years with your founding partner while giving no concessions/sweeteners, even if circumstances have changed.
It's doubly idiotic to introduce fundamental changes in the midst of a chick fight over absenteeism.