Brooke Schofield Spilled All of the Tea on Clinton Kane — And Simultaneously Taught a Masterclass in TikTok Storytelling
Reesa Teesa laid the foundations for long-form storytelling with her "Who TF Did I Marry" series. Brooke took her own spin on the format, making it more sustainable for creators and viewers alike.
One of the reasons TikTok rose to popularity in early 2020 was its ability to help creators succeed with short-form video. While YouTube creators used to spend hours filming and editing 20-minute vlogs, TikTok’s early 60-second time limit forced creators to make short, authentic, isolated content. Paired with an algorithm that helped grow their audiences at a rapid rate, it’s no wonder so many former YouTube creators turned to TikTok to continue building their audience.
As a result, long-form content began to disappear. Long gone are the days of 40-minute tea-spilling videos, or 20-minute GRWMs. While TikTok has increased its maximum recording time limit to 10 minutes, some creators claim the algorithm doesn’t like to push long videos.
However, some creators are finding unique ways to bring long-form content back to the app.
Back in March of this year, content creator Reesa Teesa rose to fame with her 50-part “Who TF Did I Marry?” TikTok series where she documented her entire relationship with “pathological liar” her ex-husband.
Viewers tuned in to her nearly ten-minute videos totaling roughly 8 hours altogether, which have collectively amassed over 400 million views to date. While Reesa Teesa likely won’t be posting another saga in this format, TikTok hasn’t seen other creators successfully post long-form storytelling content — until Brooke Schofield posted her viral series on her relationship with singer Clinton Kane.
In the early hours of the morning on June 26th, Brooke — an influencer who cohosts the popular “Cancelled” podcast with long-time YouTube star Tana Mongeau — uploaded 14 videos back-to-back documenting her entire history with the singer. While the two had a short-lived relationship that ended about two years ago, and Brooke has spoken about her relationship with him on the podcast, she hadn’t brought this to her TikTok audience. This was until Clinton made a video claiming his ex (who we can assume is Brooke) “won’t stop yapping” about the relationship two years after it ended.
Instead, she posted a video, saying “This is Part One of ‘Who TF Did I Marry’” and told her followers throughout the next 13 videos about how he lied to her about his age, his mother and brother’s death, his upbringing in Australia, and more. Each video revealed more allegations against Clinton, who has turned off all comments on his posts.
But instead of focusing on the details of the saga, Brooke may have been able to reconfigure the art of long-form storytelling on TikTok in a way that’s more sustainable for creators going forward.
While Reesa Teesa’s series was successful, it was very long. A lot of people spent a total of 8 hours staring at their phone screen watching every single one of her videos. Her choice to dive into the details, dig into the history, and not spare the audience anything is what catapulted her into fame. But I won’t lie, I did even come close to finishing the series.
When I saw Brooke had posted a series on her relationship with Clinton, I was hesitant to get started. However, she took a different approach: she made each video about 2 minutes and 30 seconds on average. This duration makes it much easier for someone to watch this full series, given that it’s less than 40 minutes of screen time in total.
Another tactic that Brooke used was uploading all of the videos at once. Not only did she give her audience a 40-minute series in one night, but she kept her outfit and location consistent, wearing the same white robe and sitting in the same room. This makes the series easily identifiable within Brooke’s feed so that people who stumble across one of her videos on their FYP can easily go to her feed and locate the full series.
Let’s hope not everyone has an alleged lying, cheating ex like Reesa Teesa or Brooke Schofield. But with Reesa Teesa’s invention and Brooke’s fine-tuning, the two have helped create a format for long-form storytelling that may be sustainable for creators and viewers alike. Here are some more reasons why:
It’s reminiscent of the YouTube days. Long-form content across social platforms has been struggling to stay relevant and get views. YouTube didn’t disappear among Gen Z because the product wasn’t good — YouTube disappeared because TikTok absorbed all its viewers. Instead of creators trying to court their audiences through YouTube, they can instead bring these strategies to TikTok.
It’s a great mechanism to court viewers and followers. If someone stumbles upon one of your videos from your series on your FYP and they’re intrigued, they’ll click on your account and watch the rest of your series. More eyes on your videos means more opportunities for people to click the follow button.
It’s great for the Creator’s Fund. A creator with 10,000+ followers can monetize any TikTok over 60 seconds long — and, on average, earn between $0.02-0.04 cents per 1000 views.
If you have a long, crazy story you’ve been wanting to share on TikTok, now might be the time.