On April 24th 2002, Tech TV was formed to target young adults with topics related to video games. The launch of Tech TV included popular shows like “Arena”, “Filter”, “Blister”, “Cinematech”, “Game”, “Sweat”, “Cheat!”, “Portal”, “Pulse”, “Judgement Day”, and “G4TV.com”. Some would say this was G4’s true golden era – unadulterated great content from people who truly loved games.
The note changed its pitch (not so much on a sour note) on March 25th, 2004, when G4 media acquired Tech TV – creating the hybrid G4TechTV. More than a year after, not only did the channel’s name change to G4 but the channel’s president was replaced by former senior marketing executive at Fox Sports/ESPN, Neal Tiles. Reformatting the channel tailored to be more male-oriented, Tiles believed that watching shows with gameplay all the time was not necessary. (Too bad he didn’t know about PewDiePie.)
G4TV lived during an era ripe with potential. Any gamer would recall the late night hours spent watching many of G4TV’s quality shows. Of the many channels and gaming websites that try to mimic the same kind of content, no other publication has matched the level of production and value G4TV sought and executed in its daily lineup.
The Good
The talent for G4TV came from hosts like Adam Sessler, Morgan Webb, and Kevin Pereira. Sessler is one of the only known talents who had started from the beginning of G4TV when it was ZDTV, until he left in April 2012. He gave us humor, insight, knowledge, and cheats for our favorite video games. Pairing with Morgan Webb, it was like a drunken paladin with a hot-tempered necromancer warlock duo unleashing mayhem and entertainment for all.
I won’t lie, I had (or still do) the hots for Kevin Pereira. He’s super stylish on “Attack of the Show!”, extremely down to earth, funny, a nerd/gamer evangelist, and above all knows how to make a proper exit! However, before we jump to the end, we need to see K-dog’s, memorable moments on AOTS.
Pereira was never afraid to give his viewers a good show. Sometimes they would be unorthodox or unconventional, but the guy had a good heart and truly loved to work on AOTS. G4 had truly good talent in Sessler and Pereira, so much so that watching them both leave was one of the most disappointing and heart-breaking moments of my entire life. Still to this day, I will never live down their departure (G4 definitely won’t). In an astonishing performance by K-dog, his farewell video is the epitome of the legacy of the true G4 coming to an end. Sadly, a high-quality video of Pereira’s goodbye montage is not viewable anywhere. So a fan recorded video will have to do.
Pereira touched on key concepts about the first era of G4, and the second era where it wasn’t viewers of the channel but a community that made G4 what it was. Rewatching the farewell video strikes chords of nostalgia, as does looking at Pereira’s most hilarious moments on AOTS. It was almost also a foreshadowing of the lineage that is G4’s true ending.
The Bad
After Sessler’s departure, “X-Play” became a fragment of its previous self, as the personality of Adam Sessler was hard to mimic. After Blair Joseph Herter’s addition to the show, the creative content became almost lazy. I mean, if you’re proud to have the lowest rated segment in “X-Play” history and your 15 page script has nothing to do with video games, you have problems.
G4’s original shows were some of the most iconic shows ever played on network television. Even with its legendary roster of talent, shows, and production core, the shows lost their footing on the channel as reruns and even odder shows took over.
On October 26, 2012 when G4 announced “X-Play” and “Attack of the Show!” would be discontinued, the studio only aired acquired and syndicated programming. The gameplan was to rebrand G4 as an upscale men’s channel launching as Esquire Network. The shows were to aim at metrosexual audience about traveling, cooking, fashion, and non-sports related programming. (I have to admit here that some of the acquired programs like “Anime Unleashing”, “Banzai”, “Cheaters”, and “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment” were golden shows to watch.)
However, the direction of the channel left a sour note on it’s long-stranding fans. A lot of the reality TV shows just didn’t sync with its core viewers (me included), leaving them all wondering if the channel was trying to cater to them at all anymore. The result was major cable networks (TWC, Bright House Networks, Verizon, and Cablevision) dropping the channel, due to the low viewership. With expired syndicate rights to major titles like “Heroes and Lost”, its seasonal rights to televisions shows like “Cops” ending, and it’s dwindling amount of cable coverage, G4 was forced to air repeats of their original series.
Time Warner Cable We dropped G4 Network from our channel lineups. Due to the low viewership of G4, we do not believe it represents a good value for our customers
As of November 30th, 2014 NBCUniversal Cable confirmed the network would disseminate its legal channel lineup.
The Ugly
Sessler’s leave from G4TV was quite the oddity. No reason was given for his termination, which sparked a lot of controversy about the long-standing host’s invovment with the company. With roots dating to its former identity, what could possibly have been the reason for his termination?
Now that G4 has officially become a Men’s channel, maybe they can afford the set of balls to tell me why i was fired. #GottaLetItOut
— Adam Sessler (@AdamSessler) February 11, 2013
What is even more shocking is that Sessler assumed the show “X-Play” would end with his termination. However, in this video, Sessler becomes aware the the show was going to continue without him, and that the only thing that was truly terminated was his contract. In a remark on Kotaku about his termination, Sessler states:
“I just thought it was disrespectful that they couldn’t maintain the professionalism to just keep this thing—you know, it was just humiliating. And then it occurred to me that it was only me, and I was going to be gone. And I walked out of that building and I never returned.”
The video below records the moment when Sessler realized this wasn’t the last episode of “X-Play”, it was just his last episode.
Even with the public termination, Sessler kept himself positive. Sessler’s agent sent this note out to Kotaku when asked about the separation.
Television personality Adam Sessler and TV network G4 are parting ways, with Adam’s last episode as host of G4’s “X-Play” airing on the network today, Wednesday, April 25. Adam has been hosting the show since it first aired as ZDTV’s “Gamespot TV” in July 1998 and he also served as Editor In Chief of games content at G4. His current projects include starring as himself in the Summer 2012 movie “noobz” and consulting with a film production company on theatrical feature adaptations of video games. Adam intends to stay in front of the camera and continue as a key voice within the games industry. He also sings and is available for weddings and bar mitzvahs.
The termination of Sessler heavily contributed to the downfall of the channel, as he was one of founding fathers of the network that influenced many of the personalities and hosts that preceded him. Another instance that showed the darker side of G4 was when Kevin Pereira was a guest host on Twit.tv’s online show where he discussed the reason why he left G4 and the tragic mishandling of the merger that prompted the channel’s demise.
The fine details of the channels handling of not only their merger, but of the overall gameplan of the channel sang like a sad tune, not worthy of an audience; gutting of the core values of the channel, mismanaging legal information of the merger, terminating or offering false promises to fan-favorite entities, and cancelling of popular TV shows are some of the contributions that ultimately led to the downfall of the network.
To this day, detailed documentation of the truly ugly side of the network has yet to be unmasked. However, from what we have seen, it was pretty bad. However, paying homage to its beginning from ZDTV we must come to know that not all great things last forever, but forever in our hearts. Long Live G4.
