After an explosive episode of the Frenemies podcast, Trisha Paytas has exited the show, effectively putting an end to the podcast overall. Monday’s tense episode featured them and Ethan Klein in a heated debate over ownership of the show and who does the most for the series, revealing there’s been a long-running issue of payment and creative control. Paytas expressed their distaste for the show’s “Fan advice” segment, calling the section “lazy.”
Klein clearly took offense to the comment. “A lazy podcast? You don’t do anything for it,” Klein responded. “You just show up, we do all the work.” Paytas went on to express their other frustrations regarding the show’s direction. They said they felt left out of many decision-making conversations. They shared they “didn’t get input” on hiring members of the production crew and wasn’t involved in Klein’s idea to purchase a Downtown Los Angeles studio as a filming location for the podcast. Klein revealed Paytas actually receives a “generous” portion of the show’s profits, even though they’re not a producer. The show, which was live-streamed on YouTube ended with Paytas calling for producers to end the episode.
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Paytas responded to the fiery episode by announcing their departure. “It’s been my stability, my regular thing once a week that I absolutely look forward to,” Paytas said in their video. “I thought that I would have more of a say…And that’s when I realized that it’s different than I thought it was. I thought we were 50-50 building this show.”
Apparently, the outburst caused some strife among the crew. In a comment below the post, Paytas expanded on the reason behind her departure. “I’m leaving to ease the tension everywhere. I don’t want to be the toxicity in their machine, and I can feel that I am,” Paytas wrote. “And it’s not good for anyone involved…I don’t know what else to say or how to convey what I’m going through right now without making things worse.”
Klein responded to the situation on Twitter, saying, “i am honestly gutted over this whole thing, trisha’s video this morning was a total surprise to me. I dont really know what more I can say or do. Im very sorry to all the fans of frenemies, I know how much it meant to everyone, I did everything I humanly could to save it.”
