As streamers build out their lucrative libraries, they are experimenting with label warnings, context panels and even purges: "These are valuable properties that you cannot just disregard. You want to keep them, but you have to make sure they don't damage the brand."

With live revenue decimated, The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade and Second City — now owned by game mogul Strauss Zelnick — forged new paths to varying degrees of success.