51ºÚÁÏ

CLAYTON — One of the creators of a 51ºÚÁÏ-based version of a popular dating show is accusing his co-producers of icing him out of production and show profits.

Cameron Harral filed suit this week against Kimberly Strong of St. Charles, Terry Bams Jr. of Madison County, and Bams' company, Cinematic Bams.

The three began filming a 51ºÚÁÏ-based version of the dating show, "Pop the Balloon," last year. It is posted on several social media sites and is averaging more than 100,000 views of its episodes, the suit says.ÌýOne of its more popular clips has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.Ìý

The show features a speed-dating format where singles are judged and rejected in real-time. A line of single people each hold a balloon while judging the featured single person. Contestants pop their balloon if they are not interested, and a host then interviews the participants about their impressions of the featured person.

The concept of the show is based on an Arizona version that gained national popularity on YouTube in December 2023.ÌýNow there is a

But Harral's suit said Strong and Bams locked him out of his role as owner and producer when he disagreed with Bams' decision to post the show on social media pages that belonged solely to Bams.

Bams declined to comment on the suit when reached by phone Friday. Strong could not be reached for comment.Ìý

Harral's lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment.Ìý

The trio got together in July to create "Pop the Balloon STL,"Ìýthe suit says.

They agreed to share equal ownership of the show, according to the suit. Harral and Strong would serve as executive producers and Bams would handle filming and post-production editing.

They filmed their first episode Aug. 1 and created a YouTube channel, Facebook page and Instagram page.

But on Aug. 2, the suit says Bams suggested they publish the first episode on his Cinematic Bams YouTube page.

"The Cinematic Bams page featured videography content affiliated with other parties and Bams contended that the parties would begin receiving revenue sooner if they did not have to go through the initial monetization process," the suit says.

Bams promised to create a separate YouTube channel for the show once its Facebook page grew to 1,000 subscribers, the suit says.

The account gained a large following quickly, the suit says, but in September Bams convinced Harral and Strong not to use the page they created and instead post content on the Cinematic Bams Instagram page, which he said had many followers.

Bams said if the two agreed, he'd delete all previous Cinematic Bams content, give Harral and Strong the password and administrator access to the account, and the three would share equal ownership of the converted Cinematic Bams Instagram account, the suit says.

But by late November, the suit says Harral and Strong began to suspect that Bams was working to steal the show. He wanted to replace the host of the show and by early December, Bams began posting the show on the Cinematic Bams TikTok page.

Strong initially agreed they should stop producing the show until they could resolve the conflicts the suit said, but Bams continued to publish the show and refused to distribute the proceeds from the monetization payments equally among the parties, the suit says.

Strong eventually cooperated with Bams when he offered her a larger share of the profits, "effectively locking Harral out of his role as owner and executive producer." Harral argues that since then, the show's quality has dropped and its viewership has decreased.

Harral's suit is asking the court to halt production and posting until the court makes a ruling on ownership.