Your FYP Is a TV Network Now

Hi everyone! In case you’re new here, I’m Olivia, writer at The So What and director of content at Artemis Ward. Welcome to my monthly column, where I explain what’s going viral and why it matters for your work.

Read on for “the so what” of the internet’s new favorite girl group.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been really bored by TikTok lately. Despite the brief reprieve of Off Campus edits I’ve been enjoying, I haven’t seen anything truly new or noteworthy in a while. (And no — the Butterfield dot cakes don’t count.)

That is, until one week ago, when I found The 4 in the 5.

Who’s that, you ask? Well, I’ll allow them to introduce themselves:

Okay, okay. If you’re feeling a little lazy or not in the mood to watch a TikTok, I’ll help you out. The 4 in the 5 are four women living across the five boroughs of New York City (ha, get it?). There’s Yvanna, the glamorous one: a model, ballerina, and social media strategist who loves the spotlight. Then there’s Drew, the ambitious one who works in luxury fashion and owns a media company; Gabi, the stylish one, an investment-banker-turned-private-equity girlie who is most certainly not a finance bro; and Madisen, the outgoing one who balances full-time work in luxury client relations with grad school.

Their introductory video, narrated in an early-2000s movie trailer voice and set to the Sex and the City theme, opens with a simple premise: ”four women in the five boroughs of New York City who are determined to build beautiful, successful lives without sacrificing fun in their twenties.” Who can argue with that? Evidently, not a single one of the 2.7 million people who watched their first video, which racked up 553k likes across TikTok and Instagram.

Most young-twentysomething day-in-the-life making-it-in-New-York-City influencers get served to you once and then disappear forever. So if an account does manage to beat the odds and go viral in a saturated space, it’s worth asking why. I’d argue that the answer lies in their comments section.

“Close enough, welcome back Tony, Maya, Joan and Lynn!!” (A reference, of course, to the early 2000s sitcom Girlfriends)

“I NEED THIS ON NETFLIX”

“Spectacular give me 17 seasons and a prequel”

“Guys, I wanna watch this on Bravo!”

“Glad I found you all during season 1”

“This is everything and more. We the people need episode 2 IMMEDIATELY”

Notice how nobody is commenting like they’re watching an influencer. They’re treating these four women like characters on a TV show. And once you notice that and rewatch their intro video, you realize that’s exactly what The 4 in the 5 is. The intro credits. The narration. The theme song. It’s a pilot in everything but name. And their premise — four women determined to build beautiful, successful lives without sacrificing fun in their twenties — is the same foundation of every girl-group show ever made (think Girls, Girlfriends, The Bold Type, Emily in Paris, I Love LA, and, yes, Sex and the City).

Since their first viral video, The 4 in the 5 have committed fully to the bit. Most of their content follows a TV-show format, complete with episode premises, voiceover narration, and scene transitions cutting between each girl’s day-in-the-life. They do normal TikTok trends, too, but their signature series always follows the same programming: “Welcome back to The 4 in the 5, four girls living in the five boroughs of New York City and doing it fabulously.”

Of course, it wasn’t too long before brands took notice. Just two weeks after The 4 in the 5’s first viral video, Nordstrom came calling. The ad opens on Yvanna asking, “Do you guys know what you’re wearing this weekend?” Gabi replies that she has no idea, and Madisen laments that everything she ordered didn’t make it on time. Gabi suggests shopping in-person at Nordstrom. The narrator interjects: “What started as a hunt for an outfit quickly turned into a full-on shopping spree.” As the story unfolds, you almost forget you’re watching an ad (which is, of course, entirely the point).

Soon after, the rest of the cavalry arrived. In about a month, the girls have landed deals with Nordstrom, UberEats, Coach, Vaseline, e.l.f., and Polène, and yet, every single ad feels like an episode written into a season arc. The UberEats partnership, for example, opens on a glam girl’s nightmare. The narrator sets the scene: “There’s nothing worse than getting ready for a night out and realizing your holy grail product is gone — which is exactly the crisis Drew found herself in tonight.” Drew panics when she realizes she doesn’t have a powder puff, so she calls Yvanna. Yvanna’s out of bronzer, so she adds Madisen. Madisen wants a new fragrance, so she adds Gabi. As the screen splits into a Brady Bunch-esque FaceTime, Gabi comes to the rescue, reminding the girls that Ulta Beauty is now on UberEats, so they can just order whatever they want. UberEats saves the day, and the girls get their essentials just in the nick of time. Phew! (And before you roll your eyes at the brand deals, remember that product placement has been baked into your favorite shows since, well, forever.)

More than brand attention, perhaps the biggest indicator of The 4 in the 5’s influence is that they already have their first copycat. Just ten days ago, an account called @4thegirlsatl appeared on TikTok, their first video opening with, “Welcome to Four the Girls, four girls in Atlanta building careers, navigating life, and redefining what having it all actually looks like together.” Sound familiar?

Sure, there are a few tweaks. The girls narrate the videos themselves instead of using the now-signature AI movie-trailer voice. The soundtrack swaps the Sex and the City theme for Saweetie and Doja Cat’s “Best Friend.” But, structurally, the resemblance is hard to ignore. It’s the same episodic format and the same ensemble dynamic, just in a different area code. Whether this qualifies as inspiration, imitation, or the internet’s newest IP discourse is a debate best left to the comments section. What the appearance of @4thegirlsatl does confirm, however, is that this style of episodic girl-group storytelling has become compelling — and valuable — enough to replicate.

So what, exactly, makes this format so successful? I’d argue The 4 in the 5 matter for two reasons, and they’re worth unpacking separately before you see how they work together.

The first is a phenomenon I like to call the rising star creator. Unlike the micro-influencer grinding it out for years, the rising star is a normal person who happens to go viral with their first video. Audiences latch onto them because of their relatability (they’re normal people, after all) and aspirational qualities (because their success reminds them of the American Dream of celebrity). As the rising star grows in popularity, their fanbase is rooting for them to succeed — even to land their first paid partnership. Brands that work with the rising star early (like Nordstrom) get to be part of their story, signaling to audiences that they’re paying attention to the same things they are. That cultural fluency cannot be underestimated.

The second is an argument that’s been circulating recently: your FYP is the new TV network. Recently, Betches sparked a debate about whether the eight-episode-season era is killing TV culture, mourning a time when “you knew when you signed up to watch a TV show…you were committing at least 8 months of your life to the cause.” That kind of devotion — the slow burn, the character arcs, the will-they-won’t-they you had to wait seven days to resolve — streaming largely abandoned in favor of tight, tidy limited runs. But the appetite never went away. Gen Z grew up binge-watching, and now that there’s barely anything left to binge, they’re hungry for something worth committing to. Take one viewer, who left this comment on The 4 in the 5‘s page: “can yall post more I binged everything now im having withdrawals.” That kind of parasocial relationship used to take three seasons to build. The 4 in the 5 did it in a matter of weeks. And if you need any more convincing that FYP is a network, look no further than the @4thegirlsatl debate. Audiences were quick to point to The Real Housewives and its eleven franchises as a precedent. Good formats get replicated. That’s just television, baby.

When you put these two things together — the intimacy of a rising star with the structure of episodic entertainment — you strike gold: the conditions for fandom. The next great show might already be on your FYP, accumulating a fanbase that is fiercely loyal and eager for them to go mainstream. Brands that understand that episodic TikTok content is a fundamental shift in how stories are told and how audiences form are the ones audiences will remember as being there during season one. After all, nobody brags about finding a show after it gets big.

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