# The slow death of G4 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158 "2010-11-02T02:14:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/21 "2010-11-02T19:18:03Z")
I’m sure the official and the real reason is that Olivia Munn is hot, talented, and funny, and she can and will do better than G4 and Attack of the Show. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/22 "2010-11-02T19:19:35Z")
G4? Some kind of cable TV channel, I take it? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/23 "2010-11-02T20:07:59Z")
The only thing Tech TV had was Martin Sargant and _the Screen Savers_, and that went south once it became the _Kevin “I’m Not Gay” Rose Show_ ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/24 "2010-11-02T20:10:33Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Ninja Warrior is great. X-Play was great before they started changing the style of the show and bringing in new people. I loved it when it was just Adam and Morgan talking about games and nothing else. I liked it pre-Morgan. Adam was one of the few survivors from the pre-techtv days. ---
**Author:** ![acetylene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@acetylene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acetylene)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/25 "2010-11-02T20:15:30Z")
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, monkeylucifer. I loved TSS with Leo Laporte and Kate Botello. Remember them? They seemed like they were my friends, somehow. I didn’t mind Patrick Norton either. And remember Call for Help? That show always made me feel so smart. When the G4 merger happened I enjoyed the show Judgement Day with Victor Lucas and Tommy Tallarico. Alas, as with all things we love, it was not meant to last. Now it’s all COPS and Cheaters and a little original content which I do not find compelling. I have Dish Network which hasn’t dropped G4 yet but for some reason I don’t get it in HD which really annoys me. ETA: I do like Gamespot TV, I mean Extended Play, I mean X-Play, but I get the feeling that Morgan isn’t really much of a gamer IRL. ---
**Author:** ![monkeylucifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/26 "2010-11-02T21:12:20Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > G4? Some kind of cable TV channel, I take it? Supposedly it is a channel for geek culture but it really isn’t. The only really good geeky stuff they do at this point is cover Comic Con but even then their coverage is rather sparse and they tend to do more schticky stuff than actually provide the fans who would be their target audience with actual news and info. It really is an bad mish-mash of programming which shows that the people running it don’t have any idea what they are doing. Leo Laporte was the best of what TechTV was all about and then later it became him getting shit canned and then someone like Olivia Mund being the face of the channel. She’s a fake geek who dresses up like Wonder Woman or slave Leia just to get teenage boys with raging hormones to tune into the network. She’s not funny or interesting. Yeah, she’s sexy and whatnot but I’d rather watch a channel that claims to appeal to geeks with actualy intellegent and knowledgeable people hosting the shows. Again, she’s now on The Daily Show just for cheesecake purposes (Shame, shame, shame on you Stewart) but she’s absolutely not funny at all. Her segments are all really awkward and laughless. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/27 "2010-11-02T21:47:36Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > I’m sure the official and the real reason is that Olivia Munn is hot, talented, and funny, and she can and will do better than G4 and Attack of the Show. Well if her appearances on The Daily Show are anything to go by I’m not so sure about the talented or funny. She’s just a humourless stick. A hot humourless stick, but still a humourless stick. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/28 "2010-11-02T21:57:13Z")
All cable channels are going to Hell. They are all trying to get “broader appeal”–completely losing sight of the fact that being specialty channels is why anybody cared or watched in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/29 "2010-11-02T22:47:54Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > Bring back Leo! > [@monkeylucifer](#): > > Leo Laporte was the best of what TechTV was all about and then later it became him getting shit canned and then someone like Olivia Mund being the face of the channel. Everybody reading this thread probably already knows this, but just in case - Leo started the [TWiT](http://www.twit.tv) (This Week in Tech) podcast, which grew into the TWiT brand / network of podcasts, most of them related to tech or science. I don’t listen to them all regularly (I’m not sure there’s enough time in the day for that) but the ones I listen to are of high quality. It’s a shame what happened to TechTV, but at least Leo seems to be doing very well. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/30 "2010-11-02T23:03:24Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > G4? Some kind of cable TV channel, I take it? I had a blue and white G4, but after Apple stopped supporting the PPC architecture on OS X 10.4 I sold it to some artist who was making a found art sculpture. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![monkeylucifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/31 "2010-11-02T23:32:45Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > All cable channels are going to Hell. > > They are all trying to get “broader appeal”–completely losing sight of the fact that being specialty channels is why anybody cared or watched in the first place. I totally understand this what with History Channel rarely showing much history programming and The Discovery Channel doing the same or TLC having not much to do with actual learning. However, they might have had to go in a different direction because cable channels now have to broaden their appeal rather than go for niche marketing but at least they are still making good business sense a pulling in numbers to keep them up in the ratings. Hell, I’d be one of the first people to complain about AMC no longer being about American Movie Classics but at least they give me Mad Men and now The Walking Dead. I can recall when AMC really used to show actual movie classics. Luckily I will have TCM for that, which I HOPE won’t ever change. G4 just took over TechTV and shat all upon it then turned into some bizarre Spike wannabe that doesn’t even pay for enough content to really fill a programming schedule. Just look at how many episodes of Cops that they play and that alone should tell you how lazy their programming people are. I also like Ninja Warrior like some of the people in this thread have commented on but they bury that show. The whole network totally blows, and as a die-hard geek, a techie, a comic book nerd, and a video game addict, I find it crazy that they think they are targeting me in some fashion. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/32 "2010-11-02T23:36:29Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > Bring back Leo! And Pat! ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/33 "2010-11-02T23:46:09Z")
I stopped watching shortly after TechTV became G4. Once Leo Laporte was gone, so was I. I had no interest in X-Play and most of what the station was doing at the time seemed designed to ensure its doom. I did come back to the station when they began showing Sasuke, but lost interest after the second round of reruns. ---
**Author:** ![ekweizn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7c8e57/32.png) [@ekweizn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekweizn)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/34 "2010-11-03T00:01:35Z")
I love Ninja Warrior, but Sasuke isn’t on the greatest of footing either in Japan. If Sasuke goes away, I wouldn’t be too sad if G4 went the way of the dodo. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/35 "2010-11-03T00:36:24Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Well if her appearances on The Daily Show are anything to go by I’m not so sure about the talented or funny. She’s just a humourless stick. A hot humourless stick, but still a humourless stick. The daily show is scripted, when she’s doing her own thing she is funny. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/36 "2010-11-03T00:44:36Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > The daily show is scripted, when she’s doing her own thing she is funny. Look her up on YouTube, so you can get an idea of her humor. She is very used to contemporaneous stuff, not reading a teleprompter. In fact, doesn’t she just sound like a bad actor on DTS? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/37 "2010-11-03T00:50:19Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > This happens to almost every cable channel. It’s a regression to the mean. A niche channel finds they can get bigger rating by showing more and more generic programming. Sometime it happens to a channel more than once. The Nashville Network (country music) became TNN (generic reruns) which became Spike (focused on young male audiences) and it is now kind of waffling back to generic programming. TV Tropes on [Network Decay.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NetworkDecay) ---
**Author:** ![monkeylucifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/38 "2010-11-03T00:55:51Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > The daily show is scripted, when she’s doing her own thing she is funny. I beg to differ. I’ve never watched Attack of the Show and laughed out loud even though I gave it many chanches. She a cute chick pretending to know geek stuff…nothing more and nothing less. She can’t do funny to save her life. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/39 "2010-11-03T01:26:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Look her up on YouTube, so you can get an idea of her humor. She is very used to contemporaneous stuff, not reading a teleprompter. In fact, doesn’t she just sound like a bad actor on DTS? Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I was amazed last week when Jon had to tell her to stop talking so the audience could finish laughing. She just didn’t seem to have the necessary comic sensibility to know how to handle things. ---
**Author:** ![monkeylucifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158/40 "2010-11-03T01:29:26Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I was amazed last week when Jon had to tell her to stop talking so the audience could finish laughing. She just didn’t seem to have the necessary comic sensibility to know how to handle things. G4 = No live audience totally different setting when the crew and interns are told to laugh at you for a few seconds and then stop [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-slow-death-of-g4/559158.md?page=3)