Interview: Smosh's Kiana Parker Discusses The Return of Summer Games

KP: Things have been going great! We've been having a lot of fun with the content we're making and I hope that shows.

You've been a part of Smosh for a few years now in different roles, watching it grow over two different eras. How did you first get involved with the company? And what's it been like growing in the company to be in charge of programming?

The first YouTube video I remember watching was Food Battle 2006, so I've always been familiar with Smosh on some level. I was referred to the original role I was hired for, Channel Manager, by a friend of a friend during the Mythical acquisition prior to the deal being publicly announced. I was very surprised to see Ian Hecox in what I thought was an interview to join the Good Mythical Morning team! I've always been a YouTube fan (and nerd), so digging into insights about how content performed and ideating on ways to improve naturally evolved into me shifting to a more creative-focused role. Internally, the team has always been very collaborative, so as EVP of Programming now for all channels, I really enjoy getting to dive into creative strategy with all of the Channel Directors and Producers as my full-time job.

From a behind-the-scenes perspective, how have things changed for you guys ever since you moved into your current studio a few years ago, compared to working with Mythical?

When we first moved into the new space, we were still working with Mythical pretty closely. The return of Anthony and the new independent era of Smosh is definitely what helped us usher in the great creative space we're in now.

So one of the biggest things Smosh fans have been asking for is the return of the Summer and Winter Games series. What was the catalyst that made everyone finally decide to explore if you could make it happen?

The last Summer Games was in 2019— my first year at the company. We've seen the continuous requests to bring the show back, and for several reasons it never felt like the right time. With Anthony joining the team, we received even more requests to bring the show back, but we knew it would take a lot of development work to make it happen. When Smosh Summer Games was first created, it was a crossover event with two sets of cast who never interacted, which creates such a specific reason for the audience to tune in. Our current era of Smosh has one cast who does it all, so we wanted to make sure we could think through the creative and properly justify the show's return— We didn't want to deliver a lackluster Smosh Summer Games!

Our content as a whole has changed drastically since the last time we produced Summer Games. Our average video length has gotten significantly longer and we're leaning into our mission statement of making comedy that is rooted in friendship at its core. Spencer Agnew, the Director of the Smosh Games channel, and I really wanted to make sure we could honor the past of what Summer Games was while giving ourselves space to iterate on something new and fresh that celebrates where we are now as a brand. I think we did a great job at finding that sweet spot!

How did you come to the Class of 2005 theme? Was the plan there to do the anniversary first, or did the school then come first, and it all worked out to tie the two together?

We've been thinking about what a Summer Games return would look like for years. I worked really closely with Spencer to workshop high level themes. I remember we had a brainstorming session at Olive Garden one day, going back and forth with several unusable ideas, but a couple of throughlines that stuck. I think we had "high school" as a theme we liked and someone else threw out an idea of targeting a specific throwback decade. When those two ideas came together, and we realized we could time it with Smosh's 20th anniversary, it felt like our "Eureka!" moment.

The competitions seem to be all filmed at a high school. How did you come across the set for this one, and how was it for the crew setting everything up for this one in this particular location?

One of the reasons we enjoyed exploring "high school" as a theme was that the location really sets the tone for competitions and gives us a great sandbox to play in. Amanda Barnes, our EVP of Production wore so many hats for this project, including location scouting. We looked at several different schools based on the facilities they had available to use. We actually were planning on shooting at a different school and things fell through unexpectedly, but Amanda was able to find the one we ultimately landed on for us which ended up being the most fun option available. If anyone watching is a fan of a certain musical television show… Some of the shots of the school may look very familiar!

What was it like for everyone filming the competitions? Both for those who had done a Summer Games before, and those who were totally new to the process?

We approached a lot of the process differently for this Summer Games, so while there were some throughlines, it was a new experience for everyone. We really wanted to create real stakes and drama, so creatively we felt it was important to shoot every competition in order. Additionally, instead of just letting the Games speak for themselves, we found a really fun way to work in reality TV style confessionals which really brought the whole project together.

Seeing as how this was one of the biggest productions the current crew has done, what challenges did you face that you didn't expect?

It was pretty tough keeping this project a secret. We intentionally scheduled the shoot for once class was out of session for the summer, but turns out, there are lots of reasons for students to be present on school grounds during that time! There were some moments where the cast got recognized while walking around the campus, but we're really grateful that we were still able to keep things under wraps.

Now that it's finished filming and set to air, what are your overall thoughts on doing this? Would you want to come back for another, or was this more than you expected to take on?

We had a lot of fun bringing this to life, and I'm so proud of the work the entire team put into making this happen. We tried a lot of new stuff on this project— we even shot the whole series in 4K, so we're really excited to put it out in the world and we hope the fans love it as much as we do!