So this was just posted on Facebook: "G4's two longest-running and defining series, Attack of the Show! and X-Play, will be ending their run at the end of 2012. Both shows will include original episodes through the end of the year, and will look back at their most memorable moments as we lead up to their final episodes. A rotating lineup of guest co-hosts including John Barrowman, Michael Ian Black, Josh Myers, Paul Scheer, Rob Hueb el and Horatio Sanz will join AOTS hosts Candace Bailey andSara Underwood, and X-Play hosts Morgan Webb and Blair Herter as part of the farewell shows. With well over a thousand episodes each, Attack of the Show! and X-Play have defined gamer culture for a generation, serving as the launch pad for prominent personalities including Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Chris Hardwick and Adam Sessler. Attack of the Show! debuted March 28, 2005 and from the start was the ultimate guide to everything cool and new in the world of technology, web culture, gaming and pop culture. X-Play made its debut almost two years earlier, on April 28, 2003 (on G4’s previous incarnation: TechTV), and immediately became the go-to destination for young men seeking the latest video game news, honest reviews, hands-on demos and exclusive video game trailers and footage. The year-end celebration will take you back through highlights of these landmark shows' history, including its exclusive live-from-the-floor coverage of San Diego Comic-Con and E3. Both long-running shows helped define, as well as expand, the pop culture and gaming TV experience for a generation. We hope you've had as much fun watching them as we have had making them, and sincerely hope you join us in bidding a fond farewell to Attack of the Show and X-Play's as we look back over the next two months and head towards each series' finale." I kind of stopped watching AotS when they got rid of Olivia Munn (the chemistry between her and Kevin was a joy to behold) and I stopped watching X-Play when they veered away from just rating video games into making it a gaming news show, but this is still sad to hear. The only things left on the channel are...old sci-fi movies and Cops/Cheaters reruns. There goes the gaming channel I loved for so, so long. :<
G4 is going to be replaced with a different channel. something that has been clear for at least a few months, so this isn't surprising. Unfortunate for those who work there, though.
Oh...oh no. I'm hoping the channel isn't something terrible and ridiculous. I mean, I noticed that everything was spiraling with people being fired and leaving and all of that, but I just kinda figured the channel would be a lesser version of what it is now.
TV shows about gaming have always seemed ridiculous to me. You gain information 30 times faster reading the internet than watching a TV show, the hosts were the same kind of fake exuberant as MTV or MuchMusic hosts, and I can watch gameplay videos in the order I want and skip the ones I don't want to see on the internet.
Does G4 have any original programming now? ETA: I'll never forget AotS's proudest moment, which was also in the first episode. They put a web server up someone's ass.
For me it was always just that most of the time I could either use my TV to play a game or use it to watch a TV show about a game. Even if the TV show is pretty good (as X-Play was the couple of times that I saw it), I never really saw a reason to choose the latter.
"The Esquire Channel" Which sadly, I doubt will feature Charlie Pierce doing a Sunday morning political talk show. Sponsored by Prestone.
Basically, yeah. It's pretty sad (I like X-Play quite a bit), but not an uncommon tale in the land of cable TV. It's often only a matter of time before channels that target niche interests decide that they can make more money by refocusing the format on something that they perceive as being more popular. That's how the Sci Fi channel became the Tasteless Crap channel, and why the History Channel mostly focuses on ghosts and aliens these days. :(
