Less than a week ago, the geek/nerd community had their hearts broken when it was revealed that G4 would be shut down again. The shock wasn’t just that it was ending, but that it was ending less than a year after its “grand return” to the airways. The channel started in 2002 and then shut down in 2011. It was announced in 2020 to come back, and in 2021 it finally got its premiere with new names and familiar faces/shows. But it wasn’t to be. While some said the “writing was on the wall,” people still wanted to know what caused such a sudden pulling of the plug.
The answers are likely to frustrate many of you. Because in an extensive breakdown of the situation by The Washington Post, many now-former G4 hosts, staff, and more came forward to reveal what happened. To put it bluntly, the reason the network failed once again was a lack of leadership and not a lack of talent. In fact, the talent did more work than they reasonably should’ve to try and keep things going. The leadership? Not so much.
According to the piece, the higher-ups at Comcast, including the man who was defined as being the head of this “pet project,” didn’t know how to “focus” the brand toward one thing or another. As a result, from the get-go, there was no clear vision of what the brand was “supposed to be” or how it would take advantage of the market.
Remember, when G4 originally came out, the internet wasn’t something the masses used all the time. Even by the end of 2011, things like YouTube were still finding their footing, and platforms like Twitch didn’t exist.
With no clear vision, the constant “routine” was to see what would happen and then pivot when things “went wrong.” One former employee noted that they couldn’t let things grow naturally or cultivate them into something special because they kept pivoting. That was one of the reasons why the new eSports program Boosted got canceled not too long into its run. It wasn’t “doing numbers” in Comcast’s mind, so they pulled it.
It also didn’t help that said head of the company didn’t bother to come into the G4 offices. Instead, he left the brand months later, and the replacement didn’t have any better direction of what to do.
Arguably the worst part is that Comcast kept overworking their talent, forcing them to do jobs they weren’t hired for. Moreover, they were underpaid and kept telling the staff, “There is money.” But, of course, that rubbed the staff wrong because Comcast is worth billions.
Finally, despite bringing back the network, the marketing for the channel’s return on multiple outlets was not marketed well. As a result, people didn’t know G4 was back until well after its relaunch or even when it got canceled.
What does this prove? Comcast thought this would be an “easy thing to make money from” and didn’t invest the time and effort to make it shine. Their failure to do right by the staff and hosts has led to a fan-favorite network being canceled again and many people being out of jobs.
Source: The Washington Post
