Even though NBC Universal officially moved G4 away from games-related programming several years ago, the channel still pushed on in a few markets. Today, however, we bring news of the official end of G4, as NBC has made the decision to pull the channel from its remaining markets.
The final G4 death knell will toll on November 30th, when all instances of the channel will cease to exist. Until that time, subscribers who still have G4 can watch what remaining re-run content there is, specifically episodes of LOST, Ninja Warrior, and X-Play. There's no word on if some other channel might take G4's place at this time, so for now subscribers can expect one less channel in their line-up.
It's been a long time coming for G4, which saw viewership decrease after slowly phasing out its video game related content. When the channel first launched in 2002 it was, without question, the channel for gamers, boasting original content geared around games 24/7.
But, when the channel merged with Tech TV, G4 began to move towards content that had pop culture and tech influences as well. Essentially, every show that once was a staple of the G4 line-up was replaced by either Ninja Warrior, re-runs of The Man Show, Attack of the Show, or Cops. Man was there a lot of Cops.
The only true video game program still running on G4 at the time of its announced dissolution was X-Play, but even that show lost a lot of its luster after Adam Sessler moved on. Some say he, along with AOTS co-host Keven Pereira, saw what was coming and decided to move on before things got worse. And they definitely got worse.
What was coming was a major rebranding for the channel as The Esquire Channel, with programing that better reflected the network's pop culture bearing and trendy male demographic. Eventually, even that solution didn't satisfy NBC Universal, who decided The Esquire Channel was a better replacement for their Style Network.
So, for a little bit, the G4 name carried on, but now it is officially over. There were some truly great memories to be had while the channel was in its prime, and chances are we will never see anything like it again.
What is your favorite memory from G4? Do you think a video game channel could ever work?
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Source: IGN