Is TV’s Next Hot Thing Brewing on TikTok’s 2026 Discover List?

If the almost daily scandals involving brand-sponsored sorts saying the wrong thing, deleting their failed apologies, or ticking off their podcasting rivals wasn’t enough evidence, there’s a clear difference these days between influencers and content creators. One camp can’t help but make themselves the story, while the others are more interested in adding to the creative mix.

Earlier this year, TikTok unveiled its 2026 Discover List, hailed as a “global showcase of 50 creators to watch” spanning five categories — Educators, Foodies, Icons, Innovators, and Originators — who “are sparking trends, inspiring audiences, and shaping the future of content creation.” Among the rundown are a few who have borrowed a page from the TV and film world to produce clips that have become as watchable as some of our favorite broadcast and cable shows.

“That was something we consciously tried to create with this mini sitcom vibe,” offers Los Angeleno Drew Talbert, the co-creator and star behind the Huddy Bistro clips devoured by his 6.5 million followers.

“The big difference that I always tell people between standard television series and what we’re doing — I know it’s apples and oranges — but one of the huge advantages we have doing an episodic like this is the instant feedback,” he continues of his ongoing series featuring him as a cast of characters working in a restaurant together. “The kind of symbiotic relationship we have with our audience, you just would not be able to do when you shoot a whole series and then you wait for the feedback.”

And it’s not just skits and sketches leaning into TV-style production. The artisanal leather work Kentucky resident Jeffrey Morrison sends out to his 800k+ TikTok fans is as aesthetically shot as a high-end ad or Netflix lifestyle series, at a sliver of the budget.

Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

“I think I’m good at seeing stuff online and being like, ‘Oh, that’s really good’ and ‘I need to do that,’” the former firefighter admits. “Even before I got on social media, I was following other people mostly on YouTube and that’s probably what has been the biggest influence on me. I was watching people put together long-form content on YouTube.”

Similarly, Taryn Delanie took some inspiration from traditional TV that helped her go viral out of the gate. “It was a skit about my really bad Manhattan apartment and how I had this cabinet door that wouldn’t open because it hit the oven and my hot water wasn’t working at the time,” she says. “I had the Carrie Bradshaw [Sex and the City] music on top of it and I was just doing this funny skit…like Cribs, but introducing people to my fabulous apartment that wasn’t so fabulous.”

From there, she forged a following of 1.6 million with Denise, her recurring character who works as Heaven’s receptionist, as well as a slew of relatable Get Ready With Me videos, travel clips, and updates on the renovations she and her husband have been making to their upstate New York manor. Where all of this is headed, even she is unsure.

“The industry’s changing,” the actress and writer notes, adding that she frequently checks in with “great mentors…that are very much in TV and film” about the future of short-form content. “Maybe people might not like me saying this, but TV and film and digital, there’s a lot of merging. I’m paying attention to a lot of that [and] asking a lot of questions.”

So, how did these three Discover List standouts get to where they are today? And what does their work mean for what we could be seeing on screens phone-sized and beyond? Here, they share their journeys from casual scrolling to TikTok success.

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Drew Talbert

@drew_talbert
How It Began: As an L.A. restaurant worker with a YouTube channel with “like 200 subscribers,” Talbert was also teaching at the Groundlings improv group in L.A. back in 2020. “Then COVID shut that down and my restaurant job, so I had time.”

“My wife got on TikTok and I had a preconceived idea that it was something that wasn’t for me based off my age and whatever,” he jokes. “But I would look over her shoulder at these funny videos and was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s hilarious. Who did that? That’s so funny…I could do that maybe.’”

@drew_talbert [Nicole Serves Her Parents, Part 2] That could of gone better… (co-write w/ @andrea.kelley) #bistrohuddy #serverlife #dysfunctionalfamily #restaurantlife ♬ original sound – Drew Talbert

When Things Went Viral: “I was throwing things at the wall early on,” he recalls. “If you look at my early videos, it’d be around-the-house stuff….but [what] really took off was a restaurant one that really hit the algorithm. And I remember just having this moment of like, ‘Oh, if they like that, I’ve got a million … I have a lot to pull from!’”

Unfortunately, this all started during lockdown, so Talbert was unable to call on fellow comedians to flesh out Huddy Bristro’s boisterous cast of employees. Instead, “I am literally playing all the characters out of necessity.”

Best Collab: In addition to a guest visit from Guy Fieri, Talbert’s favorite partnership is closer to home. “My wife is my co-creator and I would’ve lost my mind earlier on through the pressure of just continuously feeding that beast if it were not for her. We met in a restaurant and she also has a lot of experience in that, but she’s also someone to bounce ideas off of. She writes them with me, she works with the community we’ve created a lot better than me a lot of times, she keeps me sane, and she keeps the ideas way more relatable, too.”

Post Loading: “We found success so late — I’m in my 40s — so once I caught lightning in a bottle,” he reveals, “I was like, ‘I’m not letting this go.’ But after about a couple years of posting every day, we [realized] that wasn’t sustainable.” And so we created a schedule of posting Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then Monday, we do our Patreon bonus video.”

Rules of Engagement:  Even if the comments are commenting, “You keep it positive,” Talbert urges. “I joke with my wife, she’s a little more fiery than me, that it’s best to swallow your pride and let it go as often as you can if it gets really personal…99.9% of the time our goal is to give more oxygen to the positivity. There’s so much to be thankful for.”

Industry Calling: Attention is being paid! “Lately, there’s been more and there’s things I can’t even discuss right now, but there’s some exciting things percolating right now,” he teases, while also appreciating the creative control, time at home with his kids, and flexible schedule most TV and film creatives don’t have. “On one hand, we’re not really in a hurry to change that. On the other hand, it is exciting to think [we could] take this in other ways as a part of the more traditional industry.”

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Jeffrey Morrison

@MorrisonMade
How It Began: Covid again! A full-time firefighter and relative newbie to crafting leather goods — “I think I started in December of 2019…I haven’t been doing it too very long,” he says — Morrison decided to get serious about it in 2020. “It was COVID that allowed me to sit down and have a lot more time to actually flesh it out and make it a reality.”

Still, there was one component missing in his marketing plan. “I didn’t have social media before I started my business. And that was the only reason I got onto social media and TikTok in general,” he reveals. “I knew if I wanted to run a business, that was going to be the way to do it.”

When Things Went Viral: “It was the first month of January 2021…it was my first video on TikTok that I made. It’s embarrassing to even go back and to see it because it’s not very well done,” Morrison cringes. “But at the time, it was mostly still people [just] posting pictures on other platforms. TikTok was brand new, so to see even someone put together the video that I did at the time, I think, was very interesting for people to see. Obviously, now everybody’s doing it, but at the time, there wasn’t a lot of people doing it [then].”

@morrisonmade Card Sleeve w/ Money Clip #genuineleather #asmr #leathercraft #leathertok ♬ In the Bosom – Sweet After Tears

Best Collab: Because Morrison’s handmade belts, wallets, and bags are made-to-order, he’s a one-man operation (belts take 10-30 minutes to make, the videos take two-three hours to edit). But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a supporting cast to his content. “A big part of why I wanted to do this was just to be around my family,” he points out. “There was one specific creator I was watching who brought his family into a lot of his content and his brand. And that had a big impact on me.”

Post Loading: Morrison isn’t “very militant in terms of a schedule” to his posts, relying instead on when ideas come to him. “I’m way more on the side of, just go with the flow and if I feel like this would make it for good content, let’s do it. And if there’s not anything for a few weeks, there’s not anything. It’s not a big deal.”

Algorithm Nation: The sports fan was tuned into March Madness when we spoke and has been known to spend time with the BookTok crowd, as well. “I’m big into Brandon’s Sanderson, he’s fantasy and a little bit of sci-fi. So, that’s the side of it that I’m on.”

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Taryn Delanie

@taryndelaniesmith
How it All Began: Ladies and gentleman, once again…Covid. Despite finishing her Master’s online during the pandemic, “no one would hire me,” the ex-call center operator and first Black Miss New York states with a smile. “I couldn’t get a job. I couldn’t get an interview. I want to blame Covid. It may have also been me.”

“My mom loved TikTok,” Delanie continues. “She’s a boomer and I think it’s so funny, she’s in her 60s and I didn’t even have the app. My mom had it first [and] was so annoying that I’d always hear her scrolling and say like, ‘Taryn, these people are funny like how you’re funny. I think you could do really well in here.’ I was always making skits just for my family and my mom said I should do one of those skits and just put it on TikTok. ‘It’s no different from what you do for us. Just put it out there.’ So, I made an account.”

@taryndelaniesmith My fabulous life on the Upper East side newyorkcity #nyclifestyle #manhattan #fabulous #therealreal #newyorktravel ♬ Sex and the City (Main Theme) – TV Sounds Unlimited

When Things Went Viral: That aforementioned Cribs bit “just went insanely, overwhelmingly viral” without her even knowing it. “My now husband called me, and he said, ‘Did you make a TikTok?’ One of the guys he had been deployed with or [maybe] went to high school with had sent him a screenshot of my video and said, ‘This is your girlfriend.’ And it had 21 million views.”

“I spent the next two days at my job under my desk [at the call center] on my phone seeing what’s going to happen next.”

Best Collab: Once the apartment video blew up, “my now-manager took me out to coffee and told me I should quit my job,” recounts Delanie, who now works with an all-female team. “She was working a corporate job and wanted to go independent and start her own agency. I’m the second creator she ever pulled on and is now the head of social media. She’s my OG. She’s been with me from Day 1 and we’ve built my career together.”

Curation Over Creation: “I just want to make stuff that I think is funny and I think that’s why I worked in the beginning because I didn’t know any better,” she observes of her wildly diverse content. “I think a lot of people are like, ‘What can I make that will go viral?’ But I didn’t know how to do that. So, instead, I just was like, ‘What if I just make stuff I think is funny?’ And I’ve kept that ethos.”

“I’m a weird Black girl and I’m a nerd. I like Lord of the Rings. I like really absurdist comedy and I wanted to start seeing stuff that reminded me of me and my friends,” she adds. “Things that we talk about that were really actually representative of all the weird girls out there.”

Industry Calling: Delanie knows that she is “really privileged to now be at a place in my career where I’m able to be pickier” about brand deals and put her audience first. “I have a responsibility to keep them entertained. So, when I’m going to do an advertisement, they are always labeled FTC-correct, but so many [viewers] are like, ‘I did not know this was an advertisement,’ because I very much keep them as skits.”

“And I’ll only work with brands that are willing to be funny, maybe even willing to poke fun at themselves a little bit,” she finishes. “You’d be surprised at how many brands this doesn’t work for. And so that’s a deal breaker for me. I don’t want to fit into some boring script because at the end of the day, I take my reputation as a writer and a comedian seriously. I get what I’m doing online is very silly, I make no bones about the fact that it is silly. But I do take very seriously the fact that people have chosen to give me their time and attention, even if it’s 30 seconds to one minute to two minutes. And I just always really want to give them my best.”