Comments by Celebs, or CBC, is a brandconsisting of several social media accounts and a weekly podcast created by Emma Diamond and Julie Kramer that focuses on pop culture and entertainment news. The brand curates a collection of social media interactions between celebrities, emphasizing lighthearted interactions while trying to humanize celebrities. The account gained popularity through Instagram, although they also have Twitter, and Facebook accounts.
Background
Comments by Celebs was co-founded by Diamond and Kramer in April 2017. At the time, Instagram had recently changed its algorithm so that comments from verified accounts were visible first. This led Kramer and Diamond to create an Instagram account featuring a variety of comments and social media interactions between celebrities. Comments by Celebs' popularity grew after Kelly Ripa mentioned the account on the air on her show Live with Kelly and Ryan. In early 2018, they also added a watermark to their posts, which they claim helped to grow the account. The company is based in New York City and Kramer and Diamond work out of the WeWork spaces in the city. Their account has also become a source of entertainment news due to the fact that they capture and instantly release information about which celebrities are interacting with one another. Because of this, they have built relationships with several entertainment reporters and celebrities, and many gossip bloggers have featured work from the accounts. To maintain positive relationships with celebrities, they request permission to post comments that may be considered questionable. As a result of the popularity, they started various spinoff accounts with the handles @CommentsByBravo, @CommentsByBachelor, @CommentsByAthletes, @CommentsByInfluencers, and @CommentsByTikTok. While Kramer and Diamond run most of the accounts themselves, they hired someone to run @CommentsbyAthletes. Diamond and Kramer are alumnae of Syracuse University, where they met and were in the same sorority. They bonded through a group chat which discussed Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Diamond holds a bachelor's degree in communications and rhetorical studies, while Kramer holds a Bachelors in psychology. At the time the account started, Diamond was pursuing a Masters in Social Work at Columbia University and Kramer was also planning on attending graduate school, but after the account's popularity grew, they deferred to pursue Comments by Celebs full-time. Both women are Jewish. Comments by Celebs was named as an honoree in the 2019 Webby Awards. On June 2, 2019, Kramer and Diamond launched a Patreon account. Subscribers pay for a membership which provides access to bonus episodes of the podcast, a Facebook group, and behind the scenes information about the company.
Podcast
Diamond and Kramer's podcast began in July 2018 as a partnership with Betches, with their first episode airing on July 10, 2018, and featuring Kelly Ripa as a guest host. Other occasional celebrity guest hosts have included Katie Couric, Lisa Rinna, and Gary Janetti. In January 2019 they left Betches and partnered with Cadence13. The podcast generally consists of five sections: weekly celebrity news, a comments award ceremony, a Kardashian update, and sometimes a Q&A or game.
Kardashian bonus episodes
In February 2019, they started releasing weekly bonus podcast episodes which focus on the stars of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. The episodes discuss Kardashian news, scandals, and past and current episodes of the reality show. They covered the Jordyn Woods and Tristan Thompson scandal on the podcast through a series of episodes which they named "JORDYNGATE" and which began trending on the Apple podcast app.
