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Game Over: G4 cancels "Attack of The Show" and "X-Play"

And yet they still want to pursue this foolhardy idea of rebranding G4 as an "Esquire"-ish "men's network". Something tried by SpikeTV which failed. At least in that case they had WWE help to sample their wares. What does G4 have after losing these shows? Cops, Cheaters, Quantum Leap and movies played to death in syndication in the 90's which nobody wants to play anymore?

At this point, G4 should just have their channel space merged with Cloo or Chiller and be quietly closed down. They struggle to get above the 100k mark in most months for their ratings. The loss of Kevin Pereira proved that without him, Attack of the Show was nothing. The loss of Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb's illness keeping her off X-Play for a few weeks saw the show turn into a shillfest in inexperienced hands, along with the foot-shooting moment of using the X-Play title to air a half hour promotional film for an upcoming game that annoyed everyone. They also don't have DirecTV distribution, and I don't expect they'll get it anytime soon.

Losing original programming is just going to remove the audience entirely, and G4 was a terrible manager of bright talent that saw them all flee to much better things once their deals were up, so as sad as this sounds, it feels better just to end it now than later.
 
The hosts of "X-Play" and its previous incarnations ("Extended Play" and "GameSpot TV") used to end their programs by saying, "game over". I don't know if recent programs have ended the same way, since I have not watched an entire edition of the program since 2003 after losing interest in the program due to its drastic changes after becoming "X-Play". I never watched an entire edition of "Attack of the Show" due to a lack of interest in both the program and G4 in general.

G4 could have been a good and stable programming service had it not been for Comcast combining G4 and TechTV, firing everyone at the TechTV offices in San Francisco, California, and rehiring a few who were willing to work at the G4 offices in Los Angeles, California. I still miss TechTV; it should have been left alone.
 
I think we are all in agreement that G4 lost all identity when it became G4 in the first place and sent all of the talent save Webb & Sessler to the curb. Back in the days of ZDTV/Tech-TV there was an identifiable brand and niche in it's programming. The Screen Savers, Call For Help and Silicon Spin were required viewing for me when they existed. Once Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose and John C. Dvorak were shown the door in the merger with G4 and turned into one big loud flashy game commercial for teenaged boys the writing was on the wall. I haven't watched one solid second G4 after the merge. I'm not in their demographic obviously but oddly enough even the demos G4 are trying to attract aren't very wild with G4's programming either aside from maybe Attack of The Show.

Gamer geeks are now following on-demand video podcasts and live streaming from places like Giantbomb and 1UP among countless others online which creates no need to tune into X-Play on G4. Tech nerds likely still follow Leo Laporte through his TWiT Network and his syndicated weekend radio show The Tech Guy through Premiere Radio Network. Attack of the Show never possessed the charm and knowledge of it's predecessor.

G4 has been Game Over for quite a few years in my opinion so this news really should be filed under: A Long Time Coming.
 
Robnoxious said:
Gamer geeks are now following on-demand video podcasts and live streaming from places like Giantbomb and 1UP among countless others online which creates no need to tune into X-Play on G4. Tech nerds likely still follow Leo Laporte through his TWiT Network and his syndicated weekend radio show The Tech Guy through Premiere Radio Network.
Click to expand...

It's not just Leo that's followed through TWiT -- the network has been a home to other hosts and pundits such as Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane (both of whom used to be at TechTV, as well), Andy Ihnatko, Steve Gibson, etc.

There's also Revision3, where some more TechTV alumni are and which is now part of Discovery Networks. Tekzilla (co-hosted by Veronica Belmont and two TechTV alumni, Patrick Norton and Robert Heron) is, as far as I'm concerned, the closest we have to The Screen Savers as it was in its heyday.

I'm actually okay with TechTV's demise years ago because its death was the spark that gave life to so much more.
 
Yeziknoradio said:
I guess they figure airing EP will fill the void when it comes to Video game news.
EP: http://epdaily.tv/
Click to expand...

For their Canadian network, maybe. But in America EP Daily is offered in syndication, usually on the flatline CW or MyNet affiliate in terrible timeslots, but nonetheless it's somewhere. On G4 US they got too exhausted with Americans taking creative control of their series so they left G4 years ago.
 
DirecTV tossed G4 overboard more than two years ago, and frankly
it has not been missed at my house.
 
Y'know, maybe this is an idea for Discovery, the next time they want to come up with a rebranded network, they should just program some TWiT & Rev3 content and call it a day.

Although, I bet they'd try putting Rev3 content in video on demand first. And the way Discovery is heading, I don't see them launching any new narrowly targeted networks. Everything they're doing seems to be a general audience thing these days.
 
And coincidentally last week Rev3 scored by grabbing Adam Sessler to be the editor-in-chief of their games section/channel, even to the point he moved back to San Francisco. The only shoe left to drop is to see where Morgan Webb goes afterwards.

Really, at this point all the tech content is centered on Revision3 and TWiT, and due to budget cuts, to a lesser extent, CBS's cnet. TWiT is always going to go on their own for sure and has made clear they aren't seeking a cable partner, but there's always that hanging fruit that CBS could launch a subchannel network with some cnet content, while Discovery could easily convert the do-nothing Destination America into Revision3's cable home. It looks like there's nothing stopping them as Revision3's cable deal with YouToo TV ran out last month.
 
Personally, I didn't cared for Attack of the Show or Kevin Pereira for that matter. I just couldn't stand him or his "jokes" at all. The rest of the AotS co-hosts pre-2009ish were just "there" as far as I was concern.

X-Play and the Anime Unleashed block (when it was actually on) were really the only shows left after the G4-TechTV merger that was worth a damn imo. Anime Unleashed was one of the sources that help me get into anime around '04. Back then, anime wasn't as widely available online as it is today. Also, game play videos were hard to find back then. So, I relied on X-Play to show me what the game footage actually look like. I enjoyed the fun on-air chemistry that Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb had then.

Charter moved G4 from the regular cable lineup to the special expanded digital package (or whatever it's called now) a few years back. I haven't seen any of G4 since.
 
Well, it seems that AOTS and X-Play have quietly left the broadcasting landscape. Considering the higher-ups at Comcast and their plans to change this channel over to more of a lifestyle focus aimed for the "metrosexual" types, I guess it's probably for the best. Yeah, G4/Tech TV is dead...long live...yeah, whatever... :-\
 
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