Russian comedy show "What Happened Next" may move to Kazakhstan
Reasons include: refusal to register the "What Happened Next" (WBN) trademark + a 50-year ban for Saburov from entering Russia + the convenience of the location for certain guests, writes Mash.
The deportation of Nurlan Saburov became the final argument for Labelcom's brainchild to move to Kazakhstan. The team has already tested filming in the republic — they invited Scriptonite, who is against the war, and blogger Alexander Zubarev. During these pilot episodes, the comedians realized that the location opens up interesting collaborations. Moreover, the new YouTube channel is monetized without problems because it is registered abroad.
Problems for the show's creators began long before Saburov's cancellation — producer Maxim Morozov failed to obtain the trademarks "What Happened Next" and "WBN" in 2022. Rospatent found no uniqueness in the show and referred to the large team — stating that it would be unfair to assign rights to only one person. Morozov collected video appeals from Nurlan Saburov, Alexey Shcherbakov, Emir Kashokov, Ilya Makarov, and Tambi Masaev with their consent to register the trademark. It didn't help, the verdict remained unchanged.
Then the producer went to court with the same request, and concurrently tried to prove that Saburov is only a host, has no relation to the management of WBN, and does not make decisions. Nobody believed it. Without a trademark, the comedians could lose the brand.
The project was conceived, funded, and launched in 2019 by Vyacheslav Dusmukhametov.
The team long struggled for advertisers' attention — they were refused due to the project's toxicity. Only after a year did the show become profitable. In 2025, WBN reached expensive advertising slots — this meant 35 million Russian rubles (450 thousand dollars) net for a regular episode and 60 million for New Year's episodes (775 thousand dollars). The record for all integrations, already after moving to YouTube, is 120 million Russian rubles (1.5 million dollars).
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