From Countdown to YouTube: Rachel Riley’s Digital-First Leap

Rachel Riley has spent 18 years on Countdown. Now she is fronting The Maths of Everything, a weekly YouTube series and podcast made with Little Dot Studios, the team behind some of the platform’s biggest science and history channels. In this episode of TellyCast, Rachel explains why maths has been missing from a YouTube factual market that already rewards physics and history, and why Little Dot thinks there is a large audience waiting for it. The format is built to be discovered: topics like sharks, Halloween, space travel and supermarket queues pull viewers in, and the maths does the rest. She also sets out how a YouTube-native show differs from television. A TV commission depends on a pilot and a fixed series order. A 52-episode-a-year YouTube show is shaped week to week by audience data, retention and what unexpectedly takes off. Rachel calls it “the Moneyball of making YouTube shows.” Sign up for The Drop newsletter Enrol on the TellyCast Digital Bootcamp Buy tickets for the Digital Content Forum Subscribe to the TellyCast YouTube channel for exclusive TV industry videos Follow us on LinkedIn Connect with Justin on LinkedIN TellyCast videos on YouTube TellyCast website TellyCast insta TellyCast Twitter TellyCast TikTok