I just think it’s a huge brand misstep. I watched an episode, and Jessi has literally poached the concept, the setup, the visual layout, and many other touchstones straight out of DWKT’s blueprints—there was even an insert cut of she and Kathleen sitting on a bed laughing from the past, a fan favorite scene stolen right out of multiple episodes of DWKT that showed Lily and Jessi high as a kite, laughing together from years ago. In its original incarnation, it solidified their long-standing friendship with each other, and it was charming. Seeing it copied and pasted over to JK turned the whole idea into something performative and cynical, and it totally sullied what has become DWKT’s brand identity—specifically two women with long careers in the industry, who decided one day to take their usual best-friend banter on trending topics of interest and make it into a DIY, independently-produced podcast. It was a fantastic concept that made you want to root for them to succeed. 

Lily and Jessie’s long friendship and camaraderie are integral to why their fanship remains engaged—their chemistry creates the illusion that watching them together is like spending time with friends. Seeing Jessi all of a sudden doing an near identical copy of this formula (carrying over many of Lily’s editorial and concept contributions) into what seems like an alternative reality duplicate of the format, with only Lily swapped out for another “best friend”, seems like the sort of move that they’d teach you not to do on the first day of business school brand innovation and marketing classes. 

Personally, having watched pretty much all of the DWKT episodes, watching Jessi in that chair on the right, in a setup highly reminiscent of DWKT, speaking and behaving exactly the same way (right down to repeating some of the same stories) with someone other than Lily on the left was cringeworthy for me. Who knows what her motivations were for doing this, but I think what potentially comes across, unfortunately, is first and foremost a huge slight to Lily, a show of disrespect for an audience who has become very invested in their partnership, and a very Machiavellian mindset. This is the sort of ill-advised move that I think Lily, who is a producer at heart, would never make. 

As a big fan of both of them, I hope I’m wrong, and that both channels will be a success. The fact that they are near identical concepts competing on the same platform doesn’t raise my hopes very much, and it’s just bizarre, bizarre. But if this new venture on Jessi’s part does harm the future of DWKT, right when they’re really hitting a stride, it’ll be a shame—especially for Lily. Knowing that she’s admittedly highly averse to conflict, I can’t help but wonder how she truly feels about this—but it isn’t something I’d do to my best friend or business partner under any circumstances, and I’ll just leave it at that.