G4 announces the end of Attack of the Show!, X-Play

In an official announcement on its web site, gamer channel G4 told fans that its two of its most popular and long-running shows would end at the end of the year:

G4's two longest-running and defining series, Attack of the Show! and X-Play, will be ending their run at the end of 2012. Both shows will include original episodes through the end of the year, and will look back at their most memorable moments as we lead up to their final episodes.

Both long-running shows helped define, as well as expand, the pop culture and gaming TV experience for a generation. We hope you've had as much fun watching them as we have had making them...

As a send-off, both shows will feature a lineup of famous guest hosts, including John Barrowman, Horatio Sanz, Michael Ian Black, and Paul Scheer. A complete list wasn't provided, but don't be surprised if some G4 alumni -- like Nerdist's Chris Hardwick, Kevin Pereira, and Olivia Munn -- show up to be a part of the extended farewell.

(via G4TV)

• [Alan Olsen]

  I expected this after losing a couple of their long time hosts. Having live humans gets expensive.  When Adam Sessler left I stopped watching G4 all together. I figured they were just culling the old people. If they don’t want to appeal to older gamers, then screw them.

• [Bucket]

  I used to love X-play. Watched a couple episodes recently and it was just kind of sad. Like going to your cousin’s fourth wedding – everyone’s trying to seem happy and like they’re having fun, but it’s really just kind of awkward and depressing.

• [Petzl]

  I left when Olivia Munn left.  Her replacement was indescribably bad.

  • [Guysmiley]

     I left when it became G4. That network was indescribably bad.

• [strugglngwriter]

  Here come 24/7 Cops and American Ninja (or whatever the crap they call it) re-runs.

• [Wolf Ilandl Butler]

  Are they owned by the same company as SyFy? Seems like same crap- different channel. They’ll probably replace them with wrestling…

  • [Brian Huntington]

    Yup. NBCUniversal. Here are their channels:

    Bravo
    Chiller
    Cloo
    CNBC
    Comcast SportsNet
    E!
    Golf Channel
    MSNBC
    mun2
    NBC
    NBC Sports Network
    Oxygen
    Style Network
    Syfy
    Telemundo
    Universal HD
    Universal Sports
    USA Network

• [Radiodiffusion Internasionaal]

  G4 is still on the air?

• [Brian Huntington]

  Expected. They announced last month that G4 was going to be rebranded as a Men’s Lifestyle channel, a la GQ. Whatever that means. I miss TechTV and “Screen Savers”. 

• [captain_cthulhu]

  I thought AOTS and XPlay! were pretty awful shows but I still watched them for their brief moments of genius (UHF find the marble recreation) or semi-insightful tech reviews. i miss techTV even more though, wish they would bring that back instead of the faux-GQ thing they want to do.

  part of me says good riddance while the other part excretes a single single tear.

  • [Listener43]

     Congratulations, captain_cthulhu, you get to drink from the fire hose!

    • [captain_cthulhu]

      @Listener42: nice!

      if you had the luck to see it live:

      Cowgirl Sara: “I thought it was supposed to c*m in my mouth Kevin… it came on on my b**bs… thought it was supposed to c*m in my mouth…”
      Incredulous Kevin: “…roll the graphic already!”

      repeats had that part cut out. I have the uncensored 5min clip on my DVR and will NEVER be deleted! live TV gold!

• [Aaron Gilliland]

  Sara Underwood will have to go back to taking her clothes off.  Pity.

• [joecuffe]

  Wow. This just reinforces that television networks have no idea how to program for an audience with disposable income. It would be easy, especially in this day and age, to create a profitable network that could capitalize on the “geek” culture. But NBC has decided to follow the winning formula of Spike (note the sarcasm). Instead of trying desperately to cater to the male 18 – 34s from 1997, why not step forward into the 21st century and develop shows and programming for the true purchasing power generation, NERDS?

• [David Hill]

  Now where are prepubescent boys going to see women licking game controllers? 

• [Rev.Veggie.Spam]

  An FYI for Canadians, G4TechTV, as it is known here, is having licensing issues with the CRTC given how far they drifted from the mandate. Only link I have for this though is a story behind a paywall but there is a bit more to it too so go and google if you’re curious.

  Loved X-Play from prior to AOTS’ launch. Once the changes came though the show really began losing the mix of snark and bone fide game love that made it unique on TV.

  And I’d like to say I really did love the rationale of their five-point star system for games. It made a lot of sense and I still tell people about it in my job which covers making some numerical summaries of subjective experiences too. Their thoughtfulness even into that showed that weren’t just childish judgemental people who wanted to dump on games they didn’t like or over-hype what they loved.

  I tried AOTS several times but it just seemed like an excuse to keep showing Olivia Munn in a Slave Leia bikini over and over again or something similar so I gave up. I understand that Kevin Pereira and other good things may have been on the show too. It seemed a bit buried behind the bikini though.

  That whole G4 management shift seemed like yet another network trying to be yet another SpikeTV knock-off just to look better on paper to money people rather than seeing a big picture for its place in the spectrum where money could still be made too. Anyone else remember when SpikeTV was something called The Nashville Network? Yes, apparently that didn’t pay well enough for the investors either.

  Now, all I see is endless Campus PD and Mantracker re-runs and X-Play at a time slot nobody watches.

  Good work, X-Play. You will be missed.

  • [Jardine]

    I found an article not behind a paywall about it.

    http://eh-tv.blogspot.ca/2012/10/crtc-decides-fate-of-g4techtv-and-own.html

    The CRTC was already not happy about the situation. Losing X-Play makes it worse since that was at least vaguely technology content. Their license was basically TechTV with Canadian content mixed in. When G4 bought TechTV and starting firing staff, TechTV Canada was screwed. They actually hired Leo Laporte to fly to Toronto once per month for a week at a time to film Call For Help (and later The Lab With Leo in Vancouver). This counted as Canadian content since it was shot with a Canadian crew and Canadian co-hosts in Canada. After a while I guess they decided to stop making that and see how long they could go without the CRTC smacking them.

    Just scrolling through their shows, there isn’t much technology content airing now. Reviews on the Run, EP Daily, X-Play, Call for Help and Lab with Leo reruns, Tech Books, and Gadgets & Gizmos reruns. So once X-Play is gone, they’re down to Reviews on the Run, EP Daily, Tech Books, and reruns of shows from over 4 years ago. It’s not like Rogers doesn’t have the resources to produce or license content, they just don’t give a shit.

    • [Rev.Veggie.Spam]

       Well, Reviews on the Run has made a smart move in getting itself onto other channels as well. When they lose G4TechTV, at least they’ll still have some audience.

      I just wish it didn’t look *so* cheap and I wish some of the reviewers put as much care into how they review as Victor does and X-Play did. Otherwise I could be a fan.

• [Scooter Jackson]

  Tried and tried and tried, but this is way past too far… Goodbye G4, you horrendous commercial slut you.

• [beemoh]

  Not surprising the channel’s finally given up the ghost- if they’re going to hide all their original content online (Feedback, MMO Report, etc) for nobody to see and refuse to broadcast it in favour of re-runs of another broadcaster’s shows, then they’re going to run out of money sharpish.

  It will be interesting to see what happens when the channel rebrands wholesale- if it has an XPlay and AOTS in all but name or not, which is as likely as anything else.

• [jccalhoun]

  So will they just name it CopsTV?

• [Vorple]

  Sad. I am old (48). AOTS kept me abreast. Holy Motors from today’s feed looks interesting.

• [Martin Cohen]

  Ever since G4 destroyed TechTV, I have hoped that it would have a humiliating end. A pox on them!

  • [hymenopterid]

    A predictable trajectory.  The relentless pursuit of the lowest common denominator.