My Take On: G4

Accord­ing to Wikipedia G4 is the following: 

G4, also known as G4 TV, is an Amer­i­can cable and satellite-television chan­nel orig­i­nally geared pri­mar­ily toward view­ers aged 12–34, based on the world of video games. More recently, the chan­nel has diverted its focus to general-interest pro­gram­ming that mainly tar­gets view­ers aged 18–34, although one video game show is still offered on the channel. 

Based on the def­i­n­i­tion above, you would think that the main­stream pro­gram­ming they offer would at least have a sem­blance of video game rel­e­vance. Sadly, in order to cap­ture the 12–34 view­ing clus­ter they have resorted to hav­ing the “hot chick” and the “good look­ing guy” give snarky com­men­tary and per­form skits to relate to the gam­ing audi­ence. I have no issue with this strat­egy - EXCEPT that they have no real video game knowl­edge and are just really good at read­ing a teleprompter, or shall I say try­ing to read it (Olivia Munn, I am look­ing at you). I would rather have peo­ple that can be both eye candy and are intel­li­gent. Get us a knowl­edge­able staff that actu­ally adds dimen­sion to the show. 

In order for G4 to make a bet­ter con­nec­tion with the “geek” culture, they need to do a severe over­haul to their pro­gram­ming. Besides using TRUE gamers to host your gam­ing offer­ings, G4 should start work­ing on more orig­i­nal pro­gram­ming to bring a steady stream of view­ers. Years ago, Spike TV (one of my favorite net­works) was much like G4 - lost in the ocean of medi­oc­rity amongst all the cable networks.  Over time, they slowly shifted focus and improved by tak­ing risks to become a legit net­work that pro­vides kick ass pro­gram­ming. Adding pow­er­houses like the UFC and TNA Wrestling as well as other cool pro­gram­ming made Spike TV a lot better.

G4’s pro­gram block sure is a sight to behold. Besides Attack of the Show (AOTS) and some of the other geek-centric fare,  here are some of their pro­gram­ming gems: 

Award win­ning pro­grams folks

In look­ing at these 12-hour blocks, you see that it is mostly repeats of the pre­vi­ous day and 1.5 hour blocks of Cops or Cheaters. Who watches this stuff?  Where is the orig­i­nal pro­gram­ming and the new shows that make me want to put this chan­nel on? Oh yeah– there are none! If they spent more money on pro­duc­tion and less on Barbie-gamers-that-aren’t-real-gamers or com­mer­cials for the Shake Weight, you would attract bet­ter adver­tis­ers to your network. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Olivia Munn, Blair But­ler, Kevin Pereira or Chris Gore. I know they are get­ting a pay­check and work­ing towards big­ger things,  but don’t take your audi­ence for fools. 

The “beau­ti­ful peo­ple” that cover our interests.

If you have to sell me on the host being a gamer we have a problem!

G4’s cov­er­age of this past week’s Comic-Con, while a ser­vice to the “geek” cul­ture was also chock full of jokes at the atten­dees’ expense. While this was humor­ous, it was also fucked up, since these are the guys and girls that hang on to your every word and make you house­hold names.  In short, G4 is the equiv­a­lent of GameStop with their big-box pre­sen­ta­tion of gam­ing news. Real gamers loathe both since they feel both are full of shit — which is unfor­tu­nate. I chal­lenge G4 to improve and become a true voice for the gam­ing, geek and tech com­mu­ni­ties.  Odds are, they won’t give a fuck about my opin­ions but it is time some­one called them out on their bullshit. 

What do you think of G4 and it’s pro­gram offer­ings and how would you improve it? 

Share your com­ments below or on the FB fan page.

Rich

View all posts by Rich
Richs web­site