G4 Moves Further From Technology Roots

Variety has a piece detailing some new hires at G4, all designed to further move the channel away from its technology roots. From the article: "One of Finn's priorities will be to scout people to profile when 'Icons' relaunches this summer. The 'Biography'-style skeinskein has been revamped to focus on figures that appeal to young men, including J.J. Abrams and Bryan SingerBryan Singer. She'll also continue to strengthen the lineup of guests visiting G4's live, studio-based series. In addition, both 'Filter' and 'Attack of the Show' will be relaunched in June with a scaled-back focus on technology. Heavier emphasis will be on attitude, humor and a broader range of male-oriented topics."

sucks

[reachums]

Well, that sucks. The whole reason I liked watching G4 was the Tech stuff. When they added Star Trek, I didn't mind. I like Star Trek, and if you stretch your logic it is kind of about technology as well. But the Man Show, Street Furry, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, none of those are really about tech. I guess you could make an argument about Street Furry being about Car technology, but I digress.

There are in fact women who watch G4, and they are totally leaving us out. We don't want to watch the Man Show (for obvious reasons), I want to watch shows that focus on Technology and Gaming. I want to have guests that all Geeks can enjoy, male or female, young or old. I want Icons to tell me about Tech/Geek icons, not male icons.

Wasn't Spike TV supposed to be the Chanel for men?

Re:sucks

[almostmanda]

This is just another effort to get the young men back into watching TV. The 18-24 males have pretty much disappeared as far as ratings by demographic go. I guess the G4 higher-ups realized that talking about video games and the internet all the time is counter-productive when they're trying to lure men AWAY from those forms of entertainment.

Re:sucks

[linzeal]

This is insightful as all heck. Out of my dozen of so friends the only ones that still watch TV the 3-4 hours a day, like most demographics; either are complete losers or have children whom they supervise when watching. I myself will be going on 6 years without cable TV soon and the only show I watch is Lost, which I download.

Re:sucks

[toad3k]

I never really thought about it, but a lot of the people I know in that age bracket indeed do not watch tv anymore.

I wonder what happened. The internet I guess.

Re:G4 Moves Further into Crap TV channel

[szyzyg]

XPlay is frequently so good that my non-gamer wife enjoys watching some of the reviews and Sketches, the reveiws are brutally honest and frequently remind her that she isn't missing much by not playing games other than DDR.

Why?

[MrCopilot]

Why is this happpening Again.

AOTS, ICONS, and Xplay are the only shows worth a damn left on that network. And then only when focused on Tech.

The only thing I can think of is that their ratings are higher for Street Fury (Occassionally I will stop here until the host speaks) and that other crap fox show and the man show then the tech used to bring in. They think this will translate into daytime viewers. Idiots.

Don't ditch the Tech shows. Improve the tech shows. How about some hosts who have actually read through their material before they read it off the telepromter. How about leaving ICONS the hell alone, I enjoy that show consistently because they are ICONS to me and its like a tech history lesson for my wife in only a half hour. How about some actual budgets. How about NeverMind I'll just watch the podcasts of your old techTV employees.

Re:G4 Moves Further into Crap TV channel

[SyncNine]

That was Cinematech. I believe they show both Cinematech *and* Cinematech: Nocturnal Emissions now. Neither are really as good as the old shows were.

When G4 merged with TechTV (I miss Patrick and Leo!) and ditched The Screen Savers, Unscrewed, and Eye Drops, I knew that the station was going downhill. And yes, I know they -changed- The Screen Savers into 'Attack of the Most Boring, Stupid, Waste of Time and Oxygen, Idiot Hour, for Idiots, Run by a bunch of Kids instead of Patrick and Leo', before anyone tells me. Maybe I'm just bitter. ;)

Don't they play 'The Man Show' on G4 now? Give me a break.

What they don't understand is that we ALREADY have 'SpikeTV', and honestly, it's a really f'ing stupid tv network (except for MXC). We DON'T need another one.

PS. Martin Sargent is one of the funniest people in the entire world, someone needs to pick him up for a similar show. If you missed Unscrewed ... You missed one of the greatest shows ever to grace the airwaves with its presence.

Re:sucks

[Captain Splendid]

And you are insightful as all heck, too. The only reason I still have cable is due to using cable for my interweb connection. I tend to download most shows I'm interested in - this is 2006, TV should work around my schedule, not the other way around.

The saddest part is that my cable company recently did...something. Going on over 4 months now, there are still several channels where the sound is badly out of sync. You can also expect (no matter which channel you're on), a "burp" every hour or so, where the picture freezes for 2 seconds, the sound cuts out, then it comes back on. Compared to all that, the stuff I download is of better picture quality and reliabilty. Sad sad sad.

I will admit that it is useful for watching Adult Swim in bed for a bit before going to sleep, though.