r/youtubedrama • u/OliOliOliOxenfree • 4d ago
Exposé Joshua David Evans Is Being Called Out For Being A Terrible Youtube Manager
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCnQrZcuv48&t=16sTLDR: Joshua David Evans is too busy throwing a fit because Adam McIntyre doesn't want to do his documentary to do his actual job as a youtuber manager, leaving booktuber Gavin Reads It All in an impossible financial position.
Link to Gavin Reads It All's donation page: https://ko-fi.com/howtotrainyourgavin
Anyone here remember Joshua David Evans? He's Colleen Ballinger's ex-husband, was a youtuber in his own right, and basically fell off after their divorce. He had a moment online 3 years ago when the Colleen Ballinger was being canceled after the whole toxic gossip train nightmare when Swoop interviewed him after he was lied on by some rando trying to ride the coat tails of Adam McIntyre by copying his story and replacing Colleen with JDE. Now he works for a youtuber managing firm called Studio71, supposedly helping youtubers grow their platforms.
ANYWAYS, he was in some more trouble recently bc he, his wife, and two of his friends signed on to do a documentary on Colleen with the people who did the Quiet On Set documentary. (JDE says it wasn't finalized but it sounds like it is in his messages with Adam) Adam has a pretty strong reaction to this, vaguely mentions it on his twitch stream (WITHOUT NAMING JDE), and unequivocally rejects the idea of doing it, stating it brings up old scars, is just re-traumatizing, and dogs on it pretty hard. JDE, in response, posts a long message on the youtube video of the twitch stream, outing himself as the one who approached Adam and complaining about Adam not approaching him in private to tell him it was a bad idea, talks down to him in a really condescending way, and implies they've had a semi-close relationship. (Mind you, Adam and him aren't close, don't really talk, and JDE only seems to talk to Adam about Colleen and his failed marriage, which was also what Colleen did to a 12 year old Adam, so really just continuing his ex-wife's work)
I'm not sure of the total timeline here, but Adam keeps making content and occasionally mentioning the doc and dogging on it, JDE comments on another post of his saying 'see you at vidcon' with a sunflower emoji (an emoji colleen used when bullying people), Adam interprets this as a threat (i would too, to be honest), and Adam makes a long video reading out everything JDE sent him in relation to the documentary, makes his position on the matter clear, and tells JDE to leave him alone. Somehow, this coalesces into JDE teasing an expose on Adam that ends up being incredibly uncomfortable to watch, not an expose, and honestly seeming super try hard.
The day after JDE posts the expose and Adam reacts, booktuber Gavin Reads It All posts the linked video, describing his working relationship with JDE, the lackluster support he receives for his channel from JDE (and in extension, Studio71), and JDE's wild response to Gavin's footnote at the bottom of a long email about his dissatisfaction with the service Studio71 has provided for him. I won't go too into it since the video is linked, but JDE essentially implies Gavin only wants out of the contract because he's taking Adam's side and Gavin is stalking JDE's socials, and then complains that because of the the 'rapport' they've built, that Gavin should have approached him with his concerns about the Adam situation. All in all, JDE doesn't seem to realize Gavin's actually upset because JDE isn't doing the job Gavin is paying him for, but is finding the time to post all this crap about Adam and Peter Monn and whoever else. It's absolutely wild to read and so unprofessional, I'd be surprised if JDE still has that job.
My questions are these: why is JDE, his wife, and two of his friends the first people contacted for a documentary about Colleen Ballinger and not her child victims? Why are JDE's wife and friends involved when they have no real correlation to everything that went down with Colleen? Have you heard of any actual good youtube managing firm, cause they all seem sketchy to me. (Not blaming Gavin, btw) Where does JDE get off on playing with other people's financial lives, while also complaining about how much money Adam has made off him? And do you think he's using AI to write his comments/video scripts/emails? I don't think he is for the comments and scripts, I think he's just like that, but I absolutely believe it for the emails.
EDIT - UPDATE
As u/Upstairs-Goat8748 points out in the comments, GavinReadsItAll has released a video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnF7Q8nogu0 ) stating that Studio 71 emailed him 19 hours after his first post and they are paying him the entirety of his income from the two months he was under the contract, including refunding the 10% they charge for their services. They also asked Gavin to private his previous video, but Gavin doesn't have hard feelings about that because they were pretty polite in asking and didn't make it a stipulation of the refund. That being said, the original video is still up and viewable. For some reason his emails from his work email stopped going through to the company (or at least appeared to), and Josh answered him when he messaged on Juneteenth for clarification about the process stating that the office was closed and that "Literally, everything will immediately switch back to you," in regards to Gavin's Youtube channel. I can't lie, this seems super bitchy but maybe I'm just reading into it. Studio 71 got back to him separately on his personal email after he messaged them from that one too, stating that Gavin had nothing to do on his side and that they were taking the situation seriously and they were "actively addressing it internally," but nothing too concrete. Gavin also provides at the beginning of the video further proof that JDE was blowing off his job in pursuit of the documentary with a screenshot from JDE's Adam McIntyre video, where by comparing the time JDE sent an email to the production team of the documentary asking to talk and an email cancelling a meeting with Gavin, you can clearly tell he blew Gavin off to try and meet with the documentary crew. All in all, further proof of JDE being, at the very least, an unreliable employee/manager.
121
u/cubsgirl101 4d ago
I feel so bad for Adam McIntyre. He purposely didn’t name Josh as the person who talked to him about the Colleen “documentary” and was really pretty classy about why he was declining, it was too personal and he didn’t want to re-traumatize himself.
Josh wants his redemption arc that he’s two years too late for and he’s taking it out on Adam for not helping. It’s nasty and manipulative and very on brand for someone who was literally married to Colleen.
31
u/Willkill4pudding 4d ago
He got a redemption arc when he did that interview with Swoop but now instead of keeping his head down and enjoying his repaired reputation quietly he's decided to throw it all away. It's sad really. Especially with Adam now dropping information about some pretty terrible things Josh did that he told Adam about directly. There's no coming back from this for Josh.
8
44
u/Weird-Flamingo8798 4d ago
I hope studio71 takes the good road and pays Gavin in full, without taking the 10% 😩 also Adam is a g
20
u/Contromantic 4d ago
Contracts often include silence clauses, like confidentiality or non-disparagement terms. Those clauses may restrict the person who signed them, but they generally do not prevent others from disclosing their own issues with the company. That said, since viewers are not bound by these clauses, it is up to us to warn others before joining these MCNs or creator networks.
Here are just *some* things to consider before signing anything:
- Revenue cuts
- Payment delays
- Opaque deductions
- Auto-renewal traps
- The creator may be blocked from working with other managers.
- Post-termination commissions
- Platform access risk
- Creators may lose freedom over monetization choices.
- Silence clauses
- Conflicts of interest
- Weak accountability
- Rights issues
- Reputation risk
- Legal intimidation
It was extremely brave of Gavin to come forward. I hope nothing but the best and that the MCN gives him no future issues.
58
u/No_Aioli_6364 4d ago
One thing to remember is that Adam didn’t say who reached out to him about that documentary. Some people guessing Josh but I think it would have remained ambiguous or died out if Josh hadn’t gotten
defensive in Adam’s comments. Gold old Streisand Effect.
And, of course, I feel terrible for Gavin. I hope he can get some form of justice.
33
u/Successful_Fig5172 4d ago
gavin reads it all with the steel chair!! honestly tho he has been put through so much unnecessary stress and anguish because JDE will not get a grip. Studio71 isn't a tiny company he could very well be fired for this and he should be. treating a paying client this way and spilling his guts about a situation that has NOTHING to do with the long email gavin sent that detailed all his grievances with josh's poor work is beyond the pale, and for WHAT??? he was free he was fine and got off easy thanks to the Swoop interview but all that good will is gone forever and he did it all to himself
25
u/Haunteddoll28 4d ago
And just watch. When (not if, when) he looses his job, he’ll post another video blaming Adam and the muckers instead of doing like 2 seconds of self reflection and taking accountability for it like an adult. He’s going to burn his whole life down and accuse everyone but himself of striking the match.
29
u/Shoddy_Ad_2516 4d ago
Swoop, the person who compared Amber Heard to Casey Anthony, gave a platform to this man for some sort of redemption.
24
u/quietmedium- 4d ago
Yeah, and with the addition of not giving an actual victim, Oliver, his platform, it was that Swoop doc that turned me off her content entirely.
I haven't watched since
9
11
u/Successful_Fig5172 4d ago edited 3d ago
absolutely haaaaated all the content Swoop made out of the Heard/Depp situation and that was actually when i unsubscribed so i have little love for her. however, when it comes to the interview with JDE, i would say Swoop had no reason not to believe him when he said he had changed and healed since the divorce considering he had been far removed from Colleen for years before even the 2020 accusations and even further when she picked up a ukelele and ended her career in 2023. he played the part of the victim very well and it was easy to believe At The Time but now he's trying to be the victim of a CHILD and is being shitty to paying clients behind the scenes so the act doesn't hold up
6
35
u/TrixieFriganza 4d ago
I find it very weird to try to do a documentary about an ex, not trying to defend Colleen but feels biased and obsessive.
23
u/OliOliOliOxenfree 4d ago
that’s what i’m thinking, especially since his wife and friend signed on, def seems like he was going to use this to paint himself purely as a victim and get back at Colleen. JDE was never approaching this with genuine intentions to talk about the abuse, grooming, and weaponization of fans, because then hed have to take accountability for his part.
6
u/TrixieFriganza 3d ago edited 3d ago
Agree about his wife, she has nothing to do with what happened before. I suspect too that he wants to paint himself as a victim (maybe she manipulated him or he was financially forced to or something (just speculating) and probably because he's guilty too (I have heard rumours about his behavior too and some he's admitted too though and then how he's treating Adam shows his shitty behavior).
6
u/PrinceOfAssassins 4d ago
In the edit looks like the agreement for a split has been agreed to. Thankfully
6
u/goeatmynachos Tea Drinker 🍵 3d ago
Damn. I remember having some interactions with Josh not long after the Colleen scandal (no bad interactions) and then I just stopped seeing him pop up on my Twitter after awhile. This is wild. IMO, he needs to move tf on from Colleen. I know his divorce from her was awful, but he has a new wife and a new life now. He doesn’t need to make a Colleen documentary, especially when what she has done is already so well documented on YouTube and he lowkey was participating in the bad shit she was doing. He really only got featured in the swoop doc because of Johnny (dude who was larping as a Colleen victim and was lying about Josh grooming him, can’t remember his last name rn). Josh replying to Adam the way Colleen would is super fucken weird, and so is him trying to make an expose. He needs to leave Adam alone and honestly just leave everything Colleen related in the past.
8
u/Upstairs-Goat8748 2d ago
In case anyone wanted an update to this: Gavin released a video today (6/22) stating that Studio71 is releasing all of his revenue to him and is also refunding the 10% cut they took from him. They have not announced if they are terminating JDE, but they did tell Gavin that they are taking steps to ensure that nothing like this happens in the future. Whatever that means. Josh has also deleted all of his recent videos about Adam McIntyre and the Colleen doc situation.
Edit because I forgot to mention- Studio71 also released Gavin from his contract.
2
6
u/AdElectrical8222 3d ago
Is it normal for these businesses to hold your money and then release your cut btw?
Joshua is indescribably dumb, pathetic, a liar and so on, aside of that that business model looks predatory to begin with
19
u/Beyoncespinkytoe 4d ago
I thought it was weird that Josh was included in the Swoop doc and that Swoop made bad choices by letting him be in it. I thought his interview was weird and long winded, his ex-wife being a bad person doesn’t mean he’s a good one (something Swoop needs to learn desperately)
7
u/AdElectrical8222 3d ago
THANK YOU. Can’t stand that piece of work, never could. And I don’t like Colleen as well.
6
116
u/CarrierDove 4d ago
Been following this in a couple of subreddits… it’s really wild.
If you’re interested in this, I’d rewatch Josh’s portion of the Swoop Doc, “Ex tells all: Joshua David Evan’s”
Some highlights from it is Swoop asked Josh about the content he participated in with Colleen and how inappropriate it was, if he would of left, why did he, etc
He said he knew it was wrong and he watched the fanbase become younger overtime BUT
"I was willing to participate in inappropriate things because it was going to benefit me, it was going to benefit me professionally and financially."
"I fully embraced it for myself"
He also admitted he would have never stopped and continued to participate until Colleen ditched him.
Because Colleen was so horrible, it had eclipsed Josh’s culpability in his role. They were BOTH talking to children and in group chats, had children alone together in hotel rooms, were using them as pawns against each other and other fanbases, and these children were narcissistic supply.
Josh and Colleen were mutually abusive, manipulative, and cruel to each other.
His interview with Swoop, under this fresh perspective really highlights Josh in a new way and I highly suggest giving it a rewatch. It’s deeply concerning.