Graceffa serves as the creator and producer, alongside Adam Lawson as director and writer. The series is produced by Brian Graden Media, with the first season premiering on June 22, 2016. Escape the Night concluded its fourth season on September 4, 2019, making the longest-running series on YouTube Premium until 2020. The dark fantasy series was nominated six times at the Streamy Awards and won two.
After its cancellation, Graceffa announced an upcoming film with funds coming through crowdfunding website Indiegogo.
The series follows internet personality Joey Graceffa as "The Savant", a fictionalized version of himself mysteriously transported through various historical eras and trapped in elaborate, time-frozen estates controlled by dark forces. Forced against his will, Joey must summon other internet personalities to join him, with each participant required to assume an era-appropriate persona and attire to gain entry. Together, they face complex puzzles and dangerous challenges to uncover magical artifacts that are key to banishing the sinister powers controlling each estate.
Each artifact is guarded by fearsome creatures, intricate puzzles, and strange characters. With only one night to succeed, the group’s survival hinges on teamwork but comes at a cost: at the end of each episode, a vote is held, resulting in one participant’s elimination through a fictional death at the hands of one of the evil’s forces protecting the artifacts. The survivors advance, facing increasingly difficult trials to retrieve each artifact and unlock a way home.
Each season introduces Joey and a rotating cast of YouTubers to a new historical setting, where they must work together to escape or risk being trapped forever. None of the cast members know what will happen next, experiencing each twist, hidden clue, and monstrous encounter in real-time as they strive to break free of the era’s dark curse.
Unlike other reality competitions where players strategize to “win” and receive a cash prize, Escape the Night offers no reward for "survival" to the cast members who reach the end of each season. This allows participants to focus on developing their characters via roleplay and building a compelling storyline within the unscripted narrative, rather than solely competing to reach the finale. This format gives cast members the freedom to fully explore their roles, contributing to the ever evolving immersive yet unscripted fictional storyline without the usual stakes or fairness found in traditional reality shows. Additionally, producers can script certain characters in advance to be eliminated at the end of a specific episode if requested due to scheduling commitments, health issues, or in cases of inappropriate conduct.
Production
Concept
In October 2015, the subscription service formerly known as YouTube Red, revealed upcoming projects including an untitled Joey Graceffa project that involves a murder mystery.[1] A year later, the subscription service teased clips of their upcoming murder mystery series.[2] Graceffa revealed in a Teen Vogue interview that "the idea for the project has been in the works for two years, and that he most looked forward to collaborating" with other YouTubers.[3] The creator also said the series was inspired by a murder mystery episode of television series Lizzie McGuire, and was also closely related to the American film Clue (1985).[4]
Filming
The creator described filming season one as "super-intense" from starting production at 10PM and wrapping up filming at 6AM. This took five consecutive nights from filming "two episodes each night" at Los Angeles, California.[5]
Distribution
Two episodes of the first season premiered on June 22, 2016, through YouTube Red.[6] The premiere season gained success, was renewed for a second season in October 2016, and premiered on June 22, 2017.[7] Graceffa confirmed that a third season was renewed in May 2018. The third season premiered on June 21, 2018. With the fourth season renewed, it made the longest-running original series on YouTube.[8] The fourth season premiered simultaneously at VidCon during a panel conference with Graceffa and was also available to watch for free on YouTube, on July 11, 2019.[9]
On June 27, 2021, former contestant Gabbie Hanna released "an exposé video" that aimed at producer Daniel Preda, creator Joey Graceffa, and their creative team. In the video, her eating disorder was triggered by "alleged mistreatment on set" and her dietary meal requests were denied by production.[10] Daniel Preda denied Hanna's allegations and personally received her meal options. Preda also mentions that Hanna has "missed or delayed production obligations" and was "verbally abusive" to staff.[11] Various season four cast members sided with the creator and writers of the series, with one of them mentioning it "paints an untruthful picture of what happened."[12]
Cancellation and sequel
After a year from its fourth season premiere, YouTube Premium confirmed and declined to renew the series for a fifth season. In the summer of 2021, Graceffa stated in a vlog that the streaming service will no longer fund and distribute further seasons of the series, but has stated that he has full ownership of the intellectual property.[13]
In October 2023, Graceffa released a couple of teasers for an upcoming project through the series' social media platforms. Later on, the creator announced an upcoming film for the series; a fundraiser was set up through Indiegogo.[14] In November 2023, Graceffa brought five previous contestants to compete a role in the upcoming film which are Manny Mua, GloZell Green, Tyler Oakley, Teala Dunn, and Rosanna Pansino (who ended up winning).[15]
Other media
Escape room
With the release of the fourth season, an immersive escape room was set up for a limited event that ran exclusively from August 9 to August 27, 2019, in Beverly Hills, California. The escape room had multiple rooms to venture through, with surprise guest appearances from Joey Graceffa, Jack O'Connor as Mortimer, and Eva Augustina Sinotte as The Sorceress.[16]
Board game
In June 2020, Graceffa announced that due to COVID-19's impact on Hollywood and television, their fifth installment was postponed indefinitely, but teased a new interactive fan version. Fans of the series subscribed to a newsletter email list in order to receive updates about the new project. A Kickstarter campaign was started to fund a board game based on the series; their goal of $30,000 was achieved in just three hours. It was formally announced the next day.[17]
Accolades
Name of the award ceremony, year presented, category, nominee(s) of the award, and the result of the nomination
