Why does YouTube star Ed Bassmaster want to be on TV?

YouTube sensation Ed Bassmaster took a pay cut to star on his own TV show.

Born Edwin Rodriguez in Northeast Philadelphia, Bassmaster has made a name (and a living) for himself by pulling pranks on unsuspecting victims - like dressing up as a zombie and going through a fast-food drive-through (30 million views) - and creating characters like Teste, Mumbles, and a CIA agent who conducts undercover operations at Kmart.

Last year, Bassmaster made national news when he took credit for destroying HitchBOT, a hitchhiking Canadian robot that met its demise in Philadelphia (he didn't actually destroy it). 6ABC even put his persona Teste on a broadcast not knowing Bassmaster was in character.

The Ed Bassmaster Show debuts at 10 p.m. Thursday on CMT. The show incorporates a lot of what he does on YouTube, and adds some characters created especially for TV.

In terms of traditional media, a TV show should be the holy grail for a guy like Bassmaster, who has been posting YouTube videos since 2006.

But financially, it's a step back.

Bassmaster, who still lives in the Northeast, is a YouTube partner, which means he makes money from ads that appear on his videos. "The amount that I got paid for the first season [of The Ed Bassmaster Show] compared to a year's salary of YouTube was half of my YouTube earnings," Bassmaster said.

Guys like Bassmaster are supposed to be the new media stars, especially when kids are more likely to turn on their laptops than their TVs. But Bassmaster and others who have made their names on YouTube or other social-media platforms are still turning to traditional media to grow their fame and reputation.

Take YouTube star Todrick Hall, who last year starred in his own MTV reality show. Page Kennedy, currently playing a supporting role on CBS's Rush Hour, gained prominence in the six-second videos he posted on Vine.

Holland, Pa.-born and -raised Jenn McAllister, 19, better known as JennXPenn on YouTube, has in her own way entered the traditional media space. She stars in the high school comedy Foursome, a show that wouldn't be out of place on MTV or Freeform (formerly ABC Family). But instead of running on traditional TV, the show started streaming on YouTube Red, YouTube's newly launched premium service, on March 30. New episodes are up on the site every Wednesday.

McAllister said Foursome was originally shopped around to networks before landing on YouTube Red, which is promoting its homegrown talent. She still goes on auditions, like any working actor. "I don't walk into an audition room and talk about YouTube. Sometimes casting directors will just know, sometimes they don't," she said.

Platforms like YouTube don't have the same clout that TV shows do. "These people in TV are traditional media. They don't embrace Internet celebrities because they feel like they worked harder than the YouTubers," Bassmaster said. "They went through stand-up, through theater, but now these guys are coming up through YouTube and taking their bread and butter. But recently they've noticed it's a good partnership and it makes sense."

TV may have a certain legitimacy. But if Bassmaster's goal was to reach as many people as possible, YouTube may be a better bet. He has more than 2 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and 528.4 million views for his videos (of which he has more than 600). Compare that to CMT's highest-rated show, the now-canceled Party Down South, which averaged about three million viewers a week.

"Who knows where media is going? My kids, I can't name a show they watch on TV," Bassmaster said.

But like McAllister, Bassmaster always wanted to be an actor in traditional media. "I'm old-school. I'm 43 years old. I've been around way before this [YouTube] sensation took over. TV and film were always my dream," said Bassmaster, who is softer-spoken in real life than his characters can be.

YouTube was for fun; TV was always the goal.

Now that Bassmaster is on TV, it's important for him to keep that YouTube feel to his show.

"Raw is real, and that's what I've always been a fan of. A lot of these pranks that are on the Internet are fake or overproduced. I wanted to get this really raw, not necessarily low-budget, feel. We did some big-budget skits, but 75 percent of the show is me being me and how I would do it on YouTube," he said.

Unlike many of his videos, the show isn't shot in the Philadelphia area, because of laws against use of hidden cameras.

Though Bassmaster may have charted new-media territory as a YouTube star in the streaming service's early days, what he does has been happening on TV for quite a while. Candid Camera premiered in 1948, and its format has been resurrected over the years, from MTV's Punk'd to ABC's Repeat After Me. Pranks are a particularly fruitful YouTube genre, but Bassmaster was an early creator.

That's part of the reason that, if the show doesn't work out, Bassmaster will just return to the Internet. And he's fine with that. "As much as I say that I want to do this, it could be a sigh of relief if I have to go back to YouTube," Bassmaster said. "This last year has been way more work than YouTube ever was. YouTube is easier, but if you want to take it to that next level, it's going to make more work."

meichel@phillynews.com

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@mollyeichel