Damnit G4! Who is your audience afterall?
There are few places we tech heads could go to find interesting TV programming that caters to "our" needs. There used to be TechTV and G4. In my opinion TechTV was the best of all things that had shows about new tech, help/how-to, gadgets, games, events and even tech news. G4 focused mostly on the gamer crowd but sprinkled in some cool stuff too. The show hosted by Tina Wood and Laura Foy and Cinematech were my favs.
Then G4 bought TechTV, became G4TV.com, and we all waited with fingers crossed to see what happened. What happened? G4 got rid of ALMOST ALL the programming we came to know and love and has practically become unwatchable. Those that they didn't get rid of got "reflavored", The Screen Savers becoming the craptastic Attack of the Show (and no it ain't the same show!) is a prime example, to get more mass appeal.
Gone are some great shows like: "Fresh Gear" hosted by Sumis Das (who's gone on to work at MSNBC) , "Call for Help" (which is back but in a crap time slot so no one without a Tivo can see it) , "TechTV News" (their version of CNN) co-hosted by Erica Hill (now a co-host at CNN), and then they went on to cancel G4's tried and true shows like G4tv and Filter. So of course being that it's now a full on network and they care about us tech heads they're going to replace those shows with even better ones...right....right?
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. We can now look forward to watching: 3 year old reruns of the Man Show (I'm a guy's guy and I found that show offensive), reruns of Fastlane (don't get me wrong, I think the grown up Tiffany Amber Theissen is a HOTTIE but that show don't belong on a tech channel), Street Fury (hosted by some "thug" who spends all his time at car shows talking to half naked women. Again, not a bad idea but not on a tech channel), and wait for it.....wait for it....reruns of Star Trek The Next Generation. All that from a channel that calls itself G4 Videogame TV? Now that's quality tech programming folks!
If it weren't for X-Play, I'd never watch the channel. Thank the heavens for Tivo!!! It kills me that there are comedy, sci fi, speed, golf, women and even a gardening channel that program and stay focused on their demographic and viewers but we techies get the big green weenie!! I would gladly be the first person to throw a match on the G4TV.com studios and end all our pain.
Then G4 bought TechTV, became G4TV.com, and we all waited with fingers crossed to see what happened. What happened? G4 got rid of ALMOST ALL the programming we came to know and love and has practically become unwatchable. Those that they didn't get rid of got "reflavored", The Screen Savers becoming the craptastic Attack of the Show (and no it ain't the same show!) is a prime example, to get more mass appeal.
Gone are some great shows like: "Fresh Gear" hosted by Sumis Das (who's gone on to work at MSNBC) , "Call for Help" (which is back but in a crap time slot so no one without a Tivo can see it) , "TechTV News" (their version of CNN) co-hosted by Erica Hill (now a co-host at CNN), and then they went on to cancel G4's tried and true shows like G4tv and Filter. So of course being that it's now a full on network and they care about us tech heads they're going to replace those shows with even better ones...right....right?
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. We can now look forward to watching: 3 year old reruns of the Man Show (I'm a guy's guy and I found that show offensive), reruns of Fastlane (don't get me wrong, I think the grown up Tiffany Amber Theissen is a HOTTIE but that show don't belong on a tech channel), Street Fury (hosted by some "thug" who spends all his time at car shows talking to half naked women. Again, not a bad idea but not on a tech channel), and wait for it.....wait for it....reruns of Star Trek The Next Generation. All that from a channel that calls itself G4 Videogame TV? Now that's quality tech programming folks!
If it weren't for X-Play, I'd never watch the channel. Thank the heavens for Tivo!!! It kills me that there are comedy, sci fi, speed, golf, women and even a gardening channel that program and stay focused on their demographic and viewers but we techies get the big green weenie!! I would gladly be the first person to throw a match on the G4TV.com studios and end all our pain.
posted by Dutch DeGay at 2:18 AM
1 Comments:
I'm actually excited for Star Trek. The reason TechTV got bought out was because it's market was too niche. It couldn't keep it's head above the water. An all video game network can't do it either.
I think picking up star trek was a great move. Why not make the channel a geek culture channel. You've got the stuff for the gamers, the sci-fi people, you've got Nerd Nation, which is an amazing series! Get some more comic book things going on, some tech stuff...yeah. Flesh it out and make it broader.
They should not have gotten rid of G4tv.com the show. Filter really wasn't doing that well. As much as I love Diane Mizota, who wants to watch them count down the top 10 scariest video game villians? What's thew point?
Attack of the show is getting a lot better. They are getting some very smart people to interview and Blair Butler has a very smart segment called "Fresh Ink" and they still have Chris Gore...my love.
They've made some really poor choices, but I am hopeful since they took on Star Trek. Next Generation is the most loved of all the series and there are tons of fans who still watch it...like me! I just hope they don't cut anymore of their good shows, and get rid of the bad ones like, The Whip Set and Cheat! Maybe they'll even get Firefly!
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