Week 1: Watch YouTube Award Winners

As I mentioned in Chapter 1, the YouTube Awards provided formal recognition to the best videos of the preceding year. The videos nominated were chosen by the YouTube staff, while the winners were selected by the YouTube community.

The winners of the 2006 YouTube Awards were announced in March 2007. There were awards in seven categories: Adorable, Comedy, Commentary, Creative, Inspirational, Musician of the Year, and Series. Each category comprised 10 videos that YouTubers ranked in order of preference.

One of the notable YouTubers who was nominated for several awards but won nothing was lonelygirl15, whose videos focused on the life of a teenage girl named Bree. However, the show did not initially reveal its fictional nature to the audience.