Adam Savage: From Model Maker to 7M Subscribers

Channel: Adam Savage's Tested   Who: Adam Savage, American maker and former MythBusters co-host   Subscribers: 7.31M (as of 14 November 2026)   Niche: workshop builds, costumes, props and making

As of 14 November 2026 Adam Savage's Tested, youtube.com/@tested, has 7.31 million subscribers and about 7.8K videos. The man on camera was a film model maker and, for 282 episodes, co-host of Discovery Channel's MythBusters.

A kid who wanted to work with his hands

Adam Whitney Savage was born in New York City on 15 July 1967 and grew up in North Tarrytown, now Sleepy Hollow, New York. He graduated from Sleepy Hollow High School in 1985. His father, Whitney Lee Savage, was a painter, filmmaker and animator who worked on Sesame Street and The Electric Company. Adam spent five years in acting school, voiced animated characters his father produced for Sesame Street, and appeared in a Charmin commercial. He gave up acting at 19: "I had passed on that in favor of doing stuff with my hands."

A local bike shop taught him to fix his own flats. "I realized you could take a bike apart and put it back together and it wasn't that hard." In high school he and his father made a suit of armour from aluminium roof flashing with 700 rivets. He wore it to school and passed out from heat exhaustion in maths class. In August 1990 he moved to San Francisco.

From model shops to MythBusters

In San Francisco he worked as an animator, graphic designer, carpenter, projectionist, set designer, toy designer, gallery owner and more. He became a model maker on films including Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, The Mummy, Space Cowboys, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and The Matrix Reloaded, and taught advanced model making at the Academy of Art University. From 2003 to 2016 he co-hosted MythBusters with Jamie Hyneman. The show ran for 282 episodes.

Tested, then Adam Savage's Tested

Tested.com was started in 2010 by Will Smith and Norman Chan, both formerly of Maximum PC, at Whiskey Media. In March 2012 BermanBraun bought Whiskey Media's Tested and said it would become "Tested with Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage", relaunching that week. Savage and Hyneman joined in 2012. The podcast Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project launched on 5 June 2012.

Hyneman left early in 2016. After MythBusters ended that year, Savage increased his output for the channel and site; Will Smith left in April 2016. Savage is now editor-in-chief, and the channel was renamed Adam Savage's Tested. The videos are workshop builds — costumes and props, including One Day Builds — plus behind-the-scenes visits to film studios, collaborations with makers, and incognito cosplay walks at comic cons. Savage has described Tested as a "vehicle for promoting the joy in making things. I use that term as broadly as possible, whether it's photography or film or music or theater or costume or setting up a shop, outfitting a car." In 2019 he published Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It, and from June 2019 he hosted Savage Builds on Science Channel.

Memberships at $2, $5 and $10

Tested's About page lists three YouTube channel memberships. Supporter is $2 a month: behind-the-scenes photos, 30% off the online shop, the chance to ask Adam a question during live streams, and occasional giveaways. Premium is $5 a month and adds exclusive content, including extended scenes. Patron is $10 a month and adds more exclusive behind-the-scenes photos and stories, plus early submission and priority for live-stream questions. The channel also sells merch through the Tested store and Savage Industries shop, and posts Amazon materials lists.

What other creators can take from it

A 7 million-subscriber maker channel still sells access in small, cheap tiers: photos, extended scenes, shop discounts, and a question in a live stream. You do not need a TV show behind you to offer the same things. The people who already watch you build will pay a few dollars a month to see more of the shop — and you can own that relationship instead of renting it from one platform.

On Yaff you can share behind-the-scenes posts, photo dumps, extra videos and ebooks behind monthly tiers, take tips, and talk to supporters in group chats and DMs. Starter is free with a 5% platform fee; optional Creator ($19/mo) and Pro ($99/mo) plans drop the platform fee to 0%; payouts go to your bank daily via Stripe. Start your free Yaff page and publish your first post, see pricing, or read how to fund your expedition or adventure with memberships and add Yaff to your YouTube channel.

More origin stories: From Plumber to 13M Subscribers: The Colin Furze Story, From Useless Robots to 2.9M Subscribers: Simone Giertz and From Toy Designer to 2M Subscribers: Jimmy DiResta.

Watch Adam Savage's Tested on YouTube