become an online hit, garnering over 800,000 followers across Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube.
On Facebook alone — the first platform on which the show was posted — it has over 430,000 followers.
And on YouTube, the show has passed the 150,000 followers mark, earning a verification badge from the platform which also recognised Loveless with an influencer award when he crossed 100,000 followers.
Now, the hilarious viral sensation is set to go to the next level with filmmaker Steven M Taylor joining the team.
“One of my visions is to take the brand to more places across the world. I hired Steven M Taylor to help me package the show in the best way possible. Doing this for approximately five years I learned in the fourth or fifth year that I am unable to accomplish the goals I have alone. I needed more people to realise the vision that I have,” Loveless, creator, host and executive producer of the show told Loop News.
Taylor — known for the film ‘Buck’ and the sci-fi short ‘19’ that he shot using his mobile phone during the first COVID-19 lockdown — brings to the team his vast experience working in Hollywood with Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment, among others.
“I am attempting to bring that polish, packaging and production value to the show,” explained Taylor.
“How do I take this raw product and give it better graphics and design, create a schedule, hammer home that edutainment aspect. We are really trying to put it in an international space. I am giving Daniel the opportunity to be what he is destined to be. I am filtering the things he doesn’t need to deal with. So far it has been fun,” he added.
For Taylor, ‘What Yuh Know?’ is essentially a game show.
Daniel Loveless, Host/Creator/Executive Producer of What Yuh Know?
Taylor highlighted shows such as ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ and ‘Kids Say the Darndest Things’, which allow viewers to submit videos, that are framed in the context of a set with a host and segmented into categories.
He said by taking the shows Loveless has already filmed, which includes a segment called ‘Where Yuh Know?’, they can fine-tune the product and package it in the same vein.
“Our goal is to create a Caribbean game show, using comedy at the forefront,” he said.
If you are not plugged into social media and have never heard of What Yuh Know?, it is a show in which Loveless tests the public’s knowledge of geography, politics, social studies and spelling, among other things.
The result is usually a comedy of errors as people confidently show off their knowledge, even though they are wrong. Those who answer questions correctly can win a sum of cash.
Steven Taylor, Producer/Director/Executive Producer of What Yuh Know?
Loveless, 22, told Loop News he started the show to give himself something that matched his personality and to satisfy his thirst for knowledge.
“I always had that charismatic personality, I always enjoy talking to people. I was always an attention seeker in a good way. I always wanted to make people smile. I would sit in the front seat of my mother’s vehicle and wave at people,” he said.
After completing his secondary education at the Sangre Grande Educational Institute in 2016, Loveless held various jobs, working as a Customer Service Rep, working at a cinema and a courier company.
But as much as he loved his jobs, he did not enjoy waking up every day to sit behind a computer.
“So I decided to leave my job and I thought about doing photography. I bought equipment and I started taking pictures at events and that worked well for a year but I felt I wanted to do more. I wasn’t able to have the influence I aspired to have as a young boy as a photographer and that is when a friend said I have a good personality, I would do well with a TV show,’ he said.
He was 17 at the time.
He added: “My background was about wanting to know more about life so I thought it would be a good idea to find out what people knew about life and politics and so on. I came up with the idea of What Yuh Know?. We went out on the street doing what essentially was a social experiment and when we edited it and put out the content it generated a lot of buzz and I knew that was the thing.”
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Loveless.
In 2017, the Adult Literacy Tutors Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ALTA) criticised the show for shaming one of its students who could not spell a word.
Loveless said the backlash helped him to mould the show into something better.
“I tried to move it away as having an outlook of making fun of people by introducing fun facts and doing the tagline, ‘Education through entertainment’. I started the show because I wanted to know more about life so I needed to remind myself why I started so I could stay on the course of trying to learn more and teach more,” he said, noting that everyone who participates gives their consent to be on camera.
He said he uses his CSR background to get to know the show’s participants.
“They don’t see me as a guy coming to mess them up, they see me as a friend,” he said.
‘What Yuh Know?’ has been filmed across Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Belize, Grenada, Guyana Barbados, Canada and Miami, among other places.
With COVID-19 limiting his ability to film in public, Loveless has repackaged the show to go live online, during which he interacts with his audience, does shout outs and shows past clips. He also conducts live interviews.
With fans all over the world, Loveless has launched a ‘biggest fan’ competition, where fans are asked to recite and impersonate his opening monologue.
That competition will lead into What Yuh Know’s Independence show, its first one-hour special which will be live-streamed on YouTube and will include the best of the best episodes, commercial breaks, interviews and a game show.
Connect with What Yuh Know? on these platforms:
Instagram handles: @whatyuhknowtt @iamdanielloveless @steventaylorfilm
Facebook and YouTube: What Yuh Know
Website for merch: www.whatyuhknow.com
For advertising info: info@whatyuhknowtt.com