In the wake of the relaunched G4TV network shutting down in under a year, many have taken to social media to express their views on how Comcast handled resurrecting the doomed brand. While everyone felt empathy for those who lost their jobs, others debated on who or what was to blame for the network failing a second time. Some of the former new G4TV hosts and personalities shared their thoughts online after the cancellation, but other thoughts from former classic G4TV posted and shared their views on everything leading up to how it all went down.
Chris Flynn is a former G4TV technical director who worked at the network from 2006 to 2012, up to when the network was canceled. He oversaw many of the technical elements of the shows being aired at the time, including effects and camera shots for Attack of the Show and more. Chris also worked for various productions at different studios in Hollywood, before and after the original G4TV was live on air. Like many alumni from the original version of the network, Chris had many opinions and thoughts to share about the new G4TV shutting down, including insight into the information he learned as things went south.
“I felt they came back with a hollowed-out version of Attack of the Show… I had advanced knowledge through inside sources six weeks ahead of time what they were doing and what the plan was… ” Sitting down for an interview with YouTube channel VGx7, Chris details that his source, who was rehired by G4TV, informed him that the ones in charge of the network had no intention of bringing back the older shows that were popular from classic G4TV. Everything was going to focus on what was new, including a big connection to eSports. He also goes on to note towards the later part of the interview that the campaign #G4NeedsTalent was also a complete mess, where most of the talent added to the network was already decided well in advance.
According to Chris’ sources, the network was very scattered and didn’t even figure out or have a crew as close to around 2 weeks prior to the relaunch. Many people didn’t know how to approach making things work. Stories coming out of the network were very bad according to what Chris was being told by his sources. Some executives on shows and other people running wild and not doing much for nearly the whole timeframe of G4TV’s Summer Beach House.
“You had people who were supposedly running things and building the company, and yet when the director would come in they would be like ‘thank god you’re here’… This was the people who were the showrunners…” Things got crazy enough that conflict between staff caused a lot of tension, with the shock of working on a real production schedule and trying to maintain order within the production caused some people to leave.
One of the big issues Chris notes from new content produced for new G4TV was the rotation of the hosts and lackluster gags. Instead of having personalities tied to specific shows, newer content would cycle the pool of talent and underutilize them. Some of the hosts would linger in the background during segments looking bored, rather than allowing them to connect with the audience on the shows they were featured. “Typical TV would have two dedicated hosts… instead of having everyone else twiddling their thumbs on the bench, they would be a role player on the bench… Everyone has a role to play…”
In the interview, Chris also goes on to discuss the differences in the talent between some of the newer hosts and the older hosts. He notes many things that worked for new hosts coming from Twitch backgrounds didn’t work for the audience watching, where the same kinds of gags would be rinsed and repeated when they didn’t always work. “One day Goldenboy is on Boosted, the next he’s just sitting on a couch… they clearly felt like they were under-utilized, the whole thing was a disaster… These people are just going to be sitting on a couch?”
Speaking on the layoffs, Chris expressed sympathy for those getting laid off most recently, with some people not even receiving severance pay after the new G4TV shutdown. “The first group that got laid off got 4 to 6 months’ severance… apparently this last group didn’t get any severance… And some were trying to figure out how to get their personal belongings back because they couldn’t get back into the studio…”
One of the more interesting bits to come from the interview was Chris’ thoughts on how things transpired with controversial host Indiana “Froskurin” Black and her speech to the audience. “I understand you’re all going to do whatever you want, you are new G4 and I respect…just don’t screw with our legacy. Once you had Frosk telling everyone to go to hell… now you’re messing with our legacy. You’re taking all that love and nostalgia that people had for us, and they were now questioning it…”
Chris went on to talk about some of the backlash and fallout from Indiana Black’s posts on Twitter, including the now infamous tweet right after the first batch of layoffs. “This is a person who needs to go away from social media, needs to stop talking in public… Just stop… She said ‘our mandate was to fix the past’… Hold on a second, our past needed to be fixed? … We lasted 12 years, launched the careers of Olivia Munn and Chris Hardwick… You all crashed and burned in 11 months, and Frosk says she’s leaving the business… How can you say we needed to be fixed?”
The rest of the interview with Chris goes on to discuss other aspects of how the older version of G4TV was made, including parts of the production that were vastly different from the new G4TV. For fans of the network who were eager to watch and disappointed with how it all turned out, the interview is a fascinating discussion about the past and present of G4TV. You can find and watch the full interview here. Post in the comments below your thoughts about what happened to the new G4TV and what you think about the interview with Chris Flynn!
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