Brandon Edelman, better known as Bran Flakezz online, just emerged as one of four winners of the “Unwell Summer Games” on YouTube, created through Alex Cooper’s “Unwell” network. The four-episode series brought 16 content creators together at a luxury ranch in Canada to compete in a series of challenges for a chance to win a share of $250,000, with the prize money distributed throughout the four days of the competition.
“There’s just so many exciting things happening that sometimes I do have to remind myself to take a step back,” Edelman tells Variety as he gets ready to speak at a Forbes CMO summit in Aspen, Colo.
Unlike a traditional competition series, “Unwell Summer Games” puts a group of established content creators — many of whom already knew each other — in the same house, ensuring there would be no shortage of drama. In the final episode, the contestants split into four teams for a final challenge. Edelman took home $25,000, alongside Jourdan Riane, Blake Gray and Carly Sutherland Lawrence, the last of whom had a less-than-perfect relationship with Bran on the show.
“There is a very funny moment where, after we scream at each other, we end up on the same team for the final challenge, and then we proceed to win the show together,” Edelman says, laughing. “Her and I have a very crazy storyline.”
Edelman got his start posting transparent videos on social media, detailing everything from his life in Philadelphia to the financial realities of being a content creator through his “TikTok Transparency” series. He’s since amassed more than 1 million followers on TikTok and made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in Social Media.
After working as a fitting room employee at Forever 21, Edelman went on to compete on Barstool’s “Project Verified” and is now part of Michelle Obama’s Gen Z voter registration intitiative. And after winning the “Unwell Summer Games,” he says he’s just getting started.
Below, Edelman talks to Variety about his time on “Unwell Summer Games,” his future in reality TV and his take on the Alex Cooper and Alix Earle drama.
Never say never. I think it’s always a case by case situation. As much as I love “Big Brother,” that’s a three-month filming schedule. Three months without posting online for me would be super detrimental, so that would be difficult. I love “Survivor.” No way in hell will you have me on an island like eating rice and sand. I think right now, anything that I want to do in a potential reality TV space is just make something that’s meaningful and real. Something I’ve always noticed when I watch reality TV is that a lot of things feel so overproduced, and that’s not what I want to do. Something that I loved about this show is that none of this drama was manufactured. This truly was how everything played out, and these people’s feelings are very real. That was really refreshing to me.
100%. A lot of us had either been friends, met before or, in some circumstances, were exes. These are all people that have a platform, and you’ve probably seen their content. So your first impression of them is, “Oh, I’ve been watching that guy’s videos for three years. He seems like a D-bag online. I wonder how he’s going to be in real life.” I probably had met over half that cast before we walked in there.
Yeah, it’s great. We have a big group chat that’s always popping off, especially right now, because the show is actually airing. We’re all like, “Oh my gosh, you said this in your interview,” or, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe they put this in that sequence, or they cut this part out.”
Definitely. My first reality show [Barstool’s “Project Verified”], I feel like people were talking about me in their interviews, and they probably did talk about me on this show and it just didn’t make the cut. And thank you to the editors for that, because I have a fragile ego. There were definitely some things where I was like, “Oh wow, that person said that about that person. I didn’t realize that.” And even sometimes I will see myself say something and go, “That was kind of mean, Brandon.” But it’s TV, and when you’re in a situation like that, it is a pressure cooker.
They did mention that I was the only person out of all 16 of us that was in a relationship, so my strategy going into it was that I’m going to be a matchmaker. I’m going to help the girls go after the guys that they want. I just wanted to be a safe space for everybody, and have fun.
We all flew out here and we’re working for four days. I didn’t want this to be us all sitting in a circle playing Kumbaya. I definitely wanted there to be realness and honesty. It’s not like I was like, “Everyone needs to fight.” But I was like, ”You want to hook up with that guy? Go for it. This is the time.”
It was complicated, because I liked all three of them so much. You kind of see in my conversation with Zarah that I just wanted her to be very honest with me about her feelings with Blake, and then act on them. My motto in life is always say what you mean and mean what you say, and that’s where I kind of guided her a little bit. And I was like, “If you said this whole time that you really care about Blake and you want to pursue something with him, or your feelings are still there, then it’s one thing to confront Carly, but you have been telling everybody you don’t want any part of this.” I wanted to be a friend for her in that moment, and be like, “Why don’t you take a step back and really reassess?”
In Zarah’s defense, though, I do think Carly was a little bit scattered. I was really surprised with Carly, because she was also someone who said she wasn’t going to kiss anybody, and then she goes for Blake. She was obsessed with Chad. Then she goes to Tim. I think it’s complicated when you have someone like Blake who is younger and such a genuine guy. But I think he’s there to have fun and doesn’t necessarily want to be in drama either.
Episode 3 ends with me trying to shake Carly and say, “I think a lot of your feelings are valid, but you control how you react to the situation. If you feel like Suede, Zarah and Hallie are excluding you, that’s three out of 16 members of this cast. Maybe you should say, “I’m not vibing with those girls. I’m going to hang out with Brandon, Cassie and Daniela.’” She is playing victim a little bit, and I just wanted her to make the best of this experience and just have fun. This is a silly little show. We leave tomorrow.
One thing they didn’t show me say to her was, “You’re upset that you’re not being picked for anyone’s team, but have you even gone up to any of the captains and say, ‘Hey, I would love to work with you?’ And she’s like, ‘Well, no.’” I said, “You almost expect things to fall on your plate, and when they don’t, you kind of throw your hands up in the air.” It takes two people to communicate. She was just looking at the glass half empty.
What you’ll see in the fourth episode is that pressure-cooker moment of me reaching my breaking point because of how she lashed out a little bit on Chad. When people are hurt, they tend to push away the people that they’re closest to, and I think that day Carly was like, “Oh, Bran’s mad at me.” She was talking to everybody else but me, and I wasn’t mad at her. I was just frustrated with her because I loved her so much. I blew a fuse for sure. And it’s not something that I’m proud of. I definitely never want to yell at anybody, let alone a woman.
It feels incredible. One of my favorite “Survivor” players of all time is Cirie Fields, and she did a very infamous speech where she was like, “My mother always said, ‘You may not be able to beat them with these [points to his arms], but you can beat them with this [points to his brain]. And I tied that into my experience. I was like, “I might not beat you in a race, but I will beat you in brain power.”
I will say, I wish we had more fascination with men than we do with women. These are two very successful, powerful women, and everyone just wants to push this narrative of beef and controversy and picking teams. I personally feel like both of them are incredible and super amazing at what they do, and I think one of those elements that both of them have is they’ll never take a business opportunity away from a mutual friend.