# Worth It
**Worth It** is an American food web series produced by BuzzFeed in which hosts [Steven Lim](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-lim) and Andrew Ilnyckyj, accompanied by cameraman and producer Adam Bianchi, try the same dish at three price points, affordable, middle tier, and luxury, and decide which version is the most "worth it" at its given price.[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/) • [2](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/inside-buzzfeeds-original-shows-strategy/) It premiered on YouTube on September 18, 2016, ran for 12 seasons, and ended on April 8, 2023.[3](https://www.moviefone.com/tv-shows/worth-it/96KxSf5mtGYKwUr1XTCHM6/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original run | September 18, 2016 to April 8, 2023; 12 seasons on YouTube, produced by BuzzFeed Studios[3](https://www.moviefone.com/tv-shows/worth-it/96KxSf5mtGYKwUr1XTCHM6/) |
| Hosts | Steven Lim and Andrew Ilnyckyj, with cameraman and producer Adam Bianchi[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/) |
| Format | The same food sampled at affordable, middle-tier, and luxury price points; the hosts grade which item is most worth its price[2](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/inside-buzzfeeds-original-shows-strategy/) |
| Episode length | Typically about 15 to 16 minutes[4](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/buzzfeed-is-producing-more-digital-shows-with-a-focus-on-growing-watch-time/) • [5](https://next-episode.net/worth-it) |
| Cumulative audience | 87 episodes with more than one billion views and nearly ten billion minutes of watch time by the 2023 finale[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/) |
| Awards | Three Streamy Awards, including "The Internet's Best Food Show"[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/) • [6](https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/the-youtube-show-thats-disrupting-food-criticism/9nvka9lo5) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
#### Season 1 (2016)
The series opens in Los Angeles with "$3 Sushi Vs. $250 Sushi," the episode that made the show famous. **Its power is in the contrast the format builds: the $3 plate arrives on plastic at a crowded counter, eaten standing, and the hosts treat it with exactly the same seriousness as the $250 omakase served course by course by a chef who has been curing fish for decades.** Steven Lim and Keith Habersberger start at the conveyor-belt sushi, climb the price ladder, and decide which plate earns its price. Because Steven and Andrew genuinely enjoy the cheap sushi, the final verdict is never a foregone conclusion, and the show's whole philosophy lands in that moment: the $3 plate can win. The episode broke a million views almost immediately, ten million within days, and now sits around twenty million.
By episode three, Andrew Ilnyckyj had replaced Keith Habersberger, and sound-and-camera man Adam Bianchi began appearing on screen as the third presence, the quiet everyman who eats whatever is put in front of him and often delivers the verdict's tiebreaker. Nineteen of the first twenty-five episodes followed the food formula: cocktails at $6 and $208, steak at $11 and $306. Each episode ends with the hosts each naming a "Worth It winner," the dish they would actually send a viewer to buy, which lets the show refuse the obvious answer that expensive means better.
#### Seasons 2 and 3 (2017–2018)
The show left Los Angeles and became a travel series. Season one went to Seattle, season two to Korea, where the three-price formula met [Korean barbecue](https://www.edgepedia.org/korean-barbecue), street food, and temple cuisine, and season three to Australia. The guests got famous along the way: David Chang of Momofuku joined a fried chicken episode that aired October 1, 2017, with [Mario Batali](https://www.edgepedia.org/mario-batali) and [Marcus Samuelsson](https://www.edgepedia.org/marcus-samuelsson) appearing in other stops. The famous-guest episodes kept the structure intact, the hosts eating fried chicken at a fast-food counter, a neighborhood joint, and a chef-driven restaurant, and each naming his own "Worth It winner."
#### Later seasons (2018–2023)
The series kept traveling and kept the format for nearly a decade of short seasons, adding the spin-off *Worth It: Lifestyle*, in which Steven takes friends to compare experiences and items rather than dishes: three ways to get a haircut, three vacations, three watches, always at affordable, middle-tier, and luxury prices. The final episode aired on April 8, 2023, closing out twelve seasons and seventy-eight episodes without ever changing the core ritual: eat three versions, talk to the people who made them, and pick the one worth it.
### Characters
**Steven Lim** is the show's center of gravity and its most careful eater. He treats each dish as a question of value, does the math out loud, and often defends the cheap option with genuine conviction. He later fronted the *Lifestyle* spin-off.
**Andrew Ilnyckyj** (who replaced Keith Habersberger in episode three) is the looser half of the duo, prone to deadpan jokes, dramatic pauses, and sudden delight. His banter with Steven, one earnest, one absurd, is the chemistry that carried the series.
**Adam Bianchi** is the cameraman and sound technician who became an on-screen third character, sampling everything from behind the lens and occasionally delivering the deciding vote. His silent, deadpan presence became one of the show's running pleasures.
**Keith Habersberger** co-starred only in the first two episodes before Andrew took his seat, a piece of casting trivia that fans of the early run still note.
### Interpretations and controversies
The show has been read as quietly patriotic: critics noted that each stop, from a strip-mall taqueria to a luxury tasting counter, is framed as a vignette of the American dream, with the hosts spotlighting the chef or owner rather than critiquing the food. That relentlessly positive tone is the series' signature and, for some food-media observers, its limitation: *Worth It* never pans a dish, which is precisely why chefs kept saying yes to it.
### Sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations
The series spawned *Worth It: Lifestyle*, in which Steven Lim applies the three-price formula to experiences and objects instead of food, comparing haircuts, vacations, and watches at affordable, middle-tier, and luxury prices. After the series ended, Steven and Andrew continued making food content of their own.
## Format
Each episode is framed around a specific ingredient or dish. The hosts travel to different restaurants to sample cheap, mid-range, and expensive versions of the chosen food, and each episode ends with them determining which take on the dish provided the best value.[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/) The price gaps can be extreme: early episodes compared $3 sushi with $250 sushi, a $4 burger with a $777 burger in Las Vegas, and $5 pizza with a $135 Italian white truffle pizza.[7](https://tv.apple.com/us/show/worth-it/umc.cmc.6fc9ekl3e93eeq2mleleowb2i) Other comparisons included $13 ribs versus $225 ribs and $2 New York pizza slices versus a $2,000 pizza.[8](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buzzfeeds-food-fest-series-worth-163049516.html)
The show pairs Lim's everyman palate with Ilnyckyj's culinary knowledge, an approach chef [David Chang](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-chang) described as useful for a dining public that is younger and more knowledgeable than before, noting that among people under 25 the hosts were better known than any chef he knew.[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/)
## Origins and hosts
Steven Lim, a BuzzFeed producer, was asked to create a food program and settled on trying similar foods at three restaurants with three drastically different price points.[9](https://teepee12.com/2021/09/06/the-right-food-at-the-right-price-rich-paschall/) BuzzFeed's head of development Matthew Henick described the origin differently in a 2017 interview: in 2016 he had the idea for a video asking whether a date at a super-expensive sushi restaurant was worth it compared with California-roll takeout; the video drew 10 million views in one week, he made similar videos in following weeks, and by episode four the audience response made clear the concept worked.[8](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buzzfeeds-food-fest-series-worth-163049516.html)
The first episodes paired Lim with BuzzFeed employee and Try Guys member Keith Habersberger; from the third episode Lim was paired with Andrew Ilnyckyj, and that combination continued for the rest of the run.[9](https://teepee12.com/2021/09/06/the-right-food-at-the-right-price-rich-paschall/) Ilnyckyj and Bianchi had studied film in college and joined BuzzFeed when its video platform was still developing, gaining experience on channels such as Violet and Tasty before working with Lim; Lim had studied chemical engineering, worked at Tide, and began making videos in [Columbus, Ohio](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbus-ohio), citing a lack of Asian American representation in media before BuzzFeed recruited him.[10](https://newuniversity.org/2018/02/27/buzzfeed-representatives-discuss-whats-worth-it/)
## Viewership and impact
**Growth.** The season two premiere on March 12, 2017 drew 3.5 million views within 24 hours, according to BuzzFeed, which called it one of its most successful web shows.[2](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/inside-buzzfeeds-original-shows-strategy/) By August 2017, 19 episodes had accumulated over 280 million YouTube views and nearly 2 billion minutes of watch time, with episodes commonly generating 10 million views on YouTube.[8](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buzzfeeds-food-fest-series-worth-163049516.html) In 2018, visitors watched 1.5 billion minutes of Worth It content, and the format's success led BuzzFeed to build a BuzzFeed Reviews brand that also offered recommendations at three price points.[11](https://digiday.com/media/buzzfeed-dives-commerce-buzzfeed-reviews/) In early 2019, the show collected 45.3 million video views and 323.4 million minutes of watch time on YouTube in three months, and viewers watched on average more than five episodes per month.[4](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/buzzfeed-is-producing-more-digital-shows-with-a-focus-on-growing-watch-time/) Over its full run its 87 episodes earned more than one billion views and nearly ten billion minutes of watch time.[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/)
**Effect on restaurants.** The series boosted the family-owned restaurants it featured. After a season one episode celebrated the affordable noodles at the Los Angeles strip-mall restaurant Pasta Sisters, the restaurant drew crowds large enough to sell out all of its pasta, and other featured eateries saw sales increases of about 20 percent.[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/)
## International versions and spin-offs
The format was exported. *Worth It UK*, BuzzFeed's first original series in the United Kingdom, began airing weekly on Facebook and YouTube on November 5, 2017, with rotating hosts and episodes in London, Brighton, and Manchester covering British fare such as tea, curries, kebabs, and fish and chips.[12](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/buzzfeed-launches-first-video-series-uk/) The main series also generated spin-offs and filmed internationally, with stops in Japan and, in later seasons, Taiwan; the final season opened in Toronto with actor [Simu Liu](https://www.edgepedia.org/simu-liu) guiding the hosts to three of his favorite spots at three price points.[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/) • [13](https://www.buzzfeed.com/uk/worthit)
## End of the series and reunion
BuzzFeed announced in March 2023 that the show was ending; the final season began March 11 with three episodes, after which Lim and Ilnyckyj shelved their brand of cost-conscious food criticism.[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/) Lim had already left BuzzFeed in December 2019 to start the content channel Watcher with [Ryan Bergara](https://www.edgepedia.org/ryan-bergara) and [Shane Madej](https://www.edgepedia.org/shane-madej).[14](https://charactermedia.com/qa-checking-in-with-shane-madej-ryan-bergara-and-steven-lim-of-watcher/) In May 2025, two years after the series wrapped, Lim, Ilnyckyj, and Bianchi reunited on a new joint YouTube channel, Andrew, Steven, and Adam, launched May 1, 2025, returning to the price-comparison format with an episode searching for the best fried rice in Los Angeles; the channel gained over 180,000 subscribers in its first week.[15](https://news.thepublishpress.com/p/ex-buzzfeed-creators-launch-new-youtube-channel)
Episode counts for the full run differ across listings: Tubefilter reported 87 episodes at the time of the finale announcement,[1](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/) Moviefone lists 82 episodes across 12 seasons,[3](https://www.moviefone.com/tv-shows/worth-it/96KxSf5mtGYKwUr1XTCHM6/) and Next Episode lists 100.[5](https://next-episode.net/worth-it)
## References
1. [BuzzFeed's 'Worth It' is coming to an end. The food show's final season begins March 11. Tubefilter (2023)](https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/03/10/buzzfeed-worth-it-final-season-about-to-eat-food-simu-liu/amp/)
2. [BuzzFeed bets big on original shows for platforms. Digiday (2017)](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/inside-buzzfeeds-original-shows-strategy/)
3. [Worth It – TV Series. Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/tv-shows/worth-it/96KxSf5mtGYKwUr1XTCHM6/)
4. [BuzzFeed's video strategy moves to more TV-like digital shows tied to verticals. Digiday (2019)](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/buzzfeed-is-producing-more-digital-shows-with-a-focus-on-growing-watch-time/)
5. [Worth It TV Show Air Dates & Track Episodes. Next Episode](https://next-episode.net/worth-it)
6. [The YouTube show that's disrupting food criticism. SBS Food (2018)](https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/the-youtube-show-thats-disrupting-food-criticism/9nvka9lo5)
7. [Worth It – Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/show/worth-it/umc.cmc.6fc9ekl3e93eeq2mleleowb2i)
8. [BuzzFeed's food-fest series 'Worth It' has racked up 280 million views. Business Insider via Yahoo Finance (2017)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buzzfeeds-food-fest-series-worth-163049516.html)
9. [The Right Food at the Right Price. Serendipity (2021)](https://teepee12.com/2021/09/06/the-right-food-at-the-right-price-rich-paschall/)
10. [BuzzFeed Representatives Discuss What's Worth It. New University (2018)](https://newuniversity.org/2018/02/27/buzzfeed-representatives-discuss-whats-worth-it/)
11. [BuzzFeed dives further into commerce with BuzzFeed Reviews. Digiday (2018)](https://digiday.com/media/buzzfeed-dives-commerce-buzzfeed-reviews/)
12. [BuzzFeed launches first video series in the UK. Digiday (2017)](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/buzzfeed-launches-first-video-series-uk/)
13. [Worth It on BuzzFeed](https://www.buzzfeed.com/uk/worthit)
14. [Q&A: Checking In With Steven Lim, Ryan Bergara And Shane Madej Of Watcher. Character Media (2020)](https://charactermedia.com/qa-checking-in-with-shane-madej-ryan-bergara-and-steven-lim-of-watcher/)
15. [Ex-BuzzFeed Creators Launch New YouTube Channel. The Publish Press (2025)](https://news.thepublishpress.com/p/ex-buzzfeed-creators-launch-new-youtube-channel)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Early English-language web series (1997–mid 2010s)*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license