Early this afternoon (or morning, depending on where you live), to the dismay of many, including myself, G4TV tweeted this announcement/press release:
Three words come to mind: What. The. Hell.
G4TV must be out of their minds to cut X-Play and AOTS, both incredible shows that have been running since 2003 and 2005, respectively. Shows that they themselves admit “have defined gamer culture for a generation” as well as helped expand it in many ways.
I mean, I could go on and on listing facts, figures, and stats about positive ratings, increasing popularity, effective publicity, and beaucoup revenue for thousands of game developers and their associates, and, most importantly, the amazing and positive influence on gamers, male AND female, worldwide that these shows have had with their hilarious and informative content. It is needless to go on except to say that someone should start a petition, because it is needed. We can either watch reruns of our favorite shows and reminisce on the glory days, and cry or do something about it.
Read the disappointing announcement (which doesn’t provide an explanation for the cancellations) after the jump here and tell me what you think in the comments section below or tweet me @TheCeeJayLouis.
Nerdy But Flirty 
That’s exactly the point though….they would have either cancelled months ago, or else kept members on longer than they wanted.
A better new cast would have helped and allowed the show to continue,, but they would have needed the right blend. KP seemed interested in the things they were talking about…most of the temp co-hosts had the feel of reading lines off of cue cards. Underwood was better than Bailey in terms of strengths and delivery. Get the right co-host with her and, at the very least, the show could have been shopped out to other networks.
Yes, I think we are in concurrence here.
Maybe, but in this case the “right decision” would have been to give Periera creative control and beg Olivia Munn to come back. This is a popular show, to be sure, but it is also a niche show. Very few people who don’t watch it know about it. And those two have enough star quality to overpower the small venue they were given on AOTS…and when they left (and they HAD to leave, for the sake of their careers), the show was going to end one way or another.
So bringing them back for a year (and only a year) to wrap things up and end the show might have made the fans happy, but puts both of their careers on hold for a year- which really is unfair to everyone involved.
(Also, for whatever it’s worth, I saw an ad for Ninja Warrior on NBC and told my brother that G4 would be shuttering. The logic being that Ninja Warrior was a flagship of the network, and that the host changes on other shows indicated they were closing up shop…for once in my life, i was right.)
The right decisions definitely weren’t as limited as you think. Networks could have coordinated the end of these shows perfectly, especially in lieu of the original cast members’ careers, but they thought of profits before purpose and wanted to ride the bus until the wheels came off. The ratings hit a plateau then a new low before they finally cut it, but they should have relied on the facts before their eyes and not evaluative data after making barely functional operational choices to keep it running.
I watch this sporadically and am not really that surprised. When Olivia Munn left, the quality of the show dropped. When Kevin Periera left, it plummeted. Maybe (maybe) if they had dropped Sara Underwood into the co-host spot instead of Candace Bailey, it would have been OK. If the profoundly unfunny rotating guest hosts had been better (Jean-Ralphio was a hoot…and that was about it), the show might have had a chance. As it was, it had the feeling of unfunny hipsters trying to hard to be cool (I’m looking at you Writer For The Onion and Former MTV Host!) and pulling everyone down around them.
Heck, Sara Underwood and Gadget Pron guy would be a pretty good show. Drop them in an RV and film them driving around the country talking to people and doing stuff. I’d watch that.
AOTS had some high points, but it’s time had come.
I agree with everything you said, especially regarding AOTS: we lost staple members and the new cast is consistently unfunny and too practiced, yet the show seemed salvageable as you said, with just a few choice changes, it would’ve been manageable. Underwood definitely held some of the spirit of Attack of the Show… Ending it like this gives it little dignity. It’s too bad there aren’t any executives with enough sense to make the right decisions. I will still advocate for it to stay on knowing it can be revived because I don’t think anyone will do better. I don’t want to see any lame copycats begin like this ended…
So sad! 😦
Yeah it really seems like the end of an era. Hopefully new video game focused content will rise to take its place.