Do We Want Ditsy Female Hosts on Video Game TV?

G4TV has essentially been gamers’ only resort for gaming-related programming for nine years now. As far as I can remember, it flew in the face of the corny and overly enthusiastic direction of GamePro TV and the rather more game show-emphasis of Nick Arcade that predate me.

Remember this?

Even in the early days of G4TV, the station had a vast array of very compelling content, with the late-night trailer reel of Cinematech, the fascinating documentary series, Icons, Judgment Day with the charismatic Tommy Tallarico and Victor Lucas, X-Play with its "brutally-honest" reviewing style, and the informative, but not-so-in-your-face Screen Savers.

All the programming looked to gamers with a certain degree of reverence and dignity. It was conceived with the understanding that the viewers were “nerds,” “geeks,” or technology enthusiasts in general, that they have habits that the normal human being does not, and that that difference was acceptable in society.

Them's quality people

But perhaps that was not enough. Or, the hardcore gamers that viewed G4TV were not numerous enough to produce numbers that would sustain G4. Then by 2006, according to Variety magazine, “G4 is evolving into a lifestyle channel, peppered with videogame culture, as opposed to wall-to-wall games." This was evident, as this shift coincided with G4’s new logo, as well as a whole host of different non-gaming programs, which disappointed me. I recall turning on G4 time and time again, hoping that I just might tune in at the time when something at least vaguely tech-related was being aired.

G4's then-new edgy logo

Perusing G4TV.com can reveal the great swath of shows that marred G4 for many. These started out with minor changes, but then G4 seemed to have noticed a spike in ratings, and amped up the emphasis on non-gaming programs. These included meat-head shows like Ninja Warrior and Cops at first, but it all went downhill from there and progressively became more meat-headed in nature to include “shows” like The International Sexy Ladies Show, Cheaters, Web Soup, It's Effin' Science, That's Tough, Whacked Out Videos, and Wired for Sex. If that's how it's going to be, G4, I'll play my games rather than watch television about them, thank you very much!

In any case, G4TV still exists and I suppose that is a success in itself. Yet saying that comes with the concession that G4 now has less gaming coverage than ever before, thus dropping many of the much-beloved video game shows for whichgamers watched G4.

The station was clearly pandering for viewers and this was to the detriment of their programming and their audience’s respect. Who were they trying to appeal to? Jocks? Bros? Brojocks? Douchebags? It seems the latter is true anyway.

An accurate depiction of G4's target demographic

They tried to appeal to too many personalities at once, that is for certain. Maybe this is the result of “jocks” vastly outnumbering “nerds” in society, and the inevitability of mainstream entertainment culture engulfing all niche entertainment culture. Or even “nerds” increasingly using the internet as a resource to view content, whereas “jocks,” or at least their shallow adult selves to prefer entertainment on television. However, all of this is speculation, as I’m grossly generalizing “jock” and “nerd” culture and ignoring any potential cross-pollination that may occur.

The internet is an important point though, as it appears television programming is a relic that is no longer revered in as high esteem as internet-driven forms of entertainment. I do not doubt that a considerable portion of G4TV’s viewership was lost due to the internet, which in part explains the channel’s current web presence.

So after all this involved self-discourse, I find myself right where I started with my title, “Do We Want Ditsy Female Hosts on Video Game TV?” I got the idea for this title after watching Attack of the Show, Screen Savers' in-your-face successor. With AOTS' rolling cast of Maxim model-meathead-heart-throbs, did we ever watch G4TV for asinine “babes” to deliver tech news and issue anecdotal reviews on technology?

Sexy, but clueless.

Let me answer that one for you, probably not. G4TV was popular because it was the only channel available that solely focused on video games and the industry. Now, we as gamers have virtually no where to go should we want to watch video game-related programming, unless we are willing to remain beholden to the station’s limited show spots like X-Play, and AOTS (although the bro-mentality has leaked into AOTS to an extent as well).

Do Candace Bailey, Sara Underwood, Kristin Adams, Olivia Munn, or Layla Kayleigh really have a passion for games? The likelihood of this statement seems doubtful. It appears as if they were brought aboard for no other purpose than for their appearance. This, along with the numerous other decisions like to increase the number and length of commercial breaks lost me as a viewer. I don’t see why Sarah Lane and Morgan Webb were not enough eye-candy.

G4 must have a quota on that kind of stuff these days… Figures.

"A giga-what, now?!"

G4TV, why did you drop so many excellent shows, and add so many horrible ones?There already exists a place for shows like that, and it’s called Spike TV.