With the departure of Eugene Lee Yang, The Try Guys will be a duo consisting of members Keith Habersberger and Zach Kornfeld.
Nearly two years after Ned Fulmer exited The Try Guys following his cheating scandal, the popular YouTube group is losing another member: Eugene Lee Yang.
On Wednesday, the group's two remaining members -- co-hosts Keith Habersberger and Zach Kornfeld -- exclusively told Rolling Stone that Yang, 38, will be leaving The Try Guys after the upcoming season to pursue different creative avenues.
"Part of this is bittersweet. We're gonna miss working with Eugene. He has been one of the true collaborators of both of our lives. But we've had a long time to process this," Kornfeld told the publication.
Despite Yang's exit, Habersberger, 36, and Kornfeld, 33, are now focused on expanding their own branded subscription streaming service, 2nd Try.
"So we're very excited for him, very excited for us, and just feeling very energized by this whole moment," Kornfield continued.
"Eugene leaving is something that is sort of necessary for us to keep moving forward," Habersberger added. "Things change. THE TRY GUYS ' original cast already came to an end once, but now it's sort of getting a better finite ending."
The Try Guys also paid tribute to Yang on their respective Instagram accounts with a shared post.
"Grateful for this ride, our incredible cast, our unbelievably hardworking crew, and most of all YOU for 10 years of support and allowing us to keep trying," they captioned a carousel of group photos. "We've been busting our ass to make 2nd try something truly unforgettable. Here's to the next chapter, here's to 2nd try 💙💚💜."
The Try Guys were formed by former BuzzFeed employees Fulmer, Yang, Habersberger, and Kornfeld in 2014. Their very first video consisted of them trying on women's underwear, and since then, their YouTube channel has amassed over 8 million subscribers and 2.6 billion views.
In 2022, however, co-creator and executive producer Fulmer was at the center of a scandal after he admitted to cheating on his wife, Ariel Fulmer, and having a consensual affair in the workplace. The couple have two sons, Wesley (born in 2018) and Finley (born in 2020).
At the time, Fulmer released a statement on his Instagram taking accountability for his actions, saying, "Family should have always been my priority, but I lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship. I'm sorry for any pain that my actions may have caused to the guys and the fans but most of all to Ariel. The only thing that matters right now is my marriage and my children, and that's where I am going to focus my attention."
Not long after, Fulmer was fired from The Try Guys following a formal review.
Of the affair, which the group said they found out about in early September 2022, Habersberger said on their The TryPod podcast, "It betrayed our trust. It was a workplace violation. It would mean to all the people in our office who knew what they knew, that we were not true to everything we say we are and our values. Very simply, he would have been removed. It would not have been this public spectacle. We probably would have tried to avoid that for the sake of the people involved."
"The fact that it was a transgression that was enacted publicly added a level of complication to this, where we knew that there was this stick of dynamite with an uncertain fuse," Kornfeld added. "We knew that at any moment this could and would come out."
With the departure of Lee Yang, The Try Guys will now be a duo consisting of remaining members Habersberger and Kornfeld.
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