Then why does there need to be a dedicated "trending" page if the videos will just end up on the front page anyway?
Why aren't up and coming youtubers, people who put real effort and are making real headway in their viewerbase, getting up there?
Because they aren't "Advertiser friendly"
forget the advertisers, there are other ways to make tons of money outside of sucking Pepsi's richard for a living.
they doesn't give two hoots about any start-up channels whether it be skits, gaming, or other content. youtube has been focused on advertiser-friendly, profitable content for years now, nothing has changed. it's not like the golden days where youtube would promote new and rising creators, you have to rely upon word-of-mouth and manipulation of their algorithms to make it nowadays. even with bigger youtubers like h3h3 and anyone else over a million subscribers, they are getting demonetised and screwed over. what you don't realize is that with size and exposure, companies like youtube have to focus on what can make them a pretty profit rather than what they will showcase on the site. youtube could showcase these smaller users when the site itself was up and coming, but now we have a surplus of creators, leaving some without any recognition.
Late night show clips get views BECAUSE they are trending. Not the other way around.
Also the views late night shows get aren't even comparable to music videos and trailers, it would be idiotic to even attempt to make a comparison. They used to get like 100k views back in 2015 before alot of the changes went through with youtube.
you're forgetting that a majority of people have television, a medium that outweighs youtube in every aspect. videos from hosts like kimmel or fallon get so many views because they bring in viewers from the outside whether it be straight from their talk shows or from people who already recognize them as a-list celebrities. if a person unfamiliar with youtube comes to the front page, what do you think they will click on; a skit with 30k views from someone unknown or a highlight clip from somebody they recognize and may even already watch?
i'm not saying that youtube is in a perfect state at the moment, i just think that it's been this way for nearly all of it's existence. with more users and money coming into the company, obviously it will take a bigger toll on the quality of the site and its content