A Plethora of Content Producers Leave Channel Awesome

[soren7550]

In the wake of Lindsay Ellis (Nostalgia Chick) [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.868595-Lindsay-Ellis-Nostalgia-Chick-to-Leave-Channel-Awesome?page=1] leaving Chanel Awesome/TGWTG, another five producers have left (Andrew Dickman, Kyle Kallgren (Oancitizen), Allison Pregler (Obscurus Lupa) and Phelan Porteus (Phelous)). Okay, left may be a bit dishonest. By the looks of things, they were all outright fired.

It's late, so I don't have it all on hand at the moment (or it simply hasn't been made available yet), but here's what I have:

Allison Pregler (Obscurus Lupa) [http://obscuruslupa.tumblr.com/post/108008749157/bye-ca]

Phelan Porteus (Phelous) [http://phelous.tumblr.com/post/108013883721/goodbye-farewell-and-amen-ca]

Kyle Kallgren (Oancitizen) [http://kylekallgren.tumblr.com/post/108118690279/a-farewell-to-awesome]

Channel Awesome would like to announce that Andrew Dickman, Kyle Kallgren (Oancitizen), Allison Pregler (Obscurus Lupa) and Phelan Porteus (Phelous) have parted ways with us. We wish them the best. [http://channelawesome.com/a-parting-of-ways/]

 

[Zontar]

Seems like them there be a sinking ship to me son.

I honestly can't say I'm surprised, I stopped watching anything on their site a while ago (don't even know why, just stopped going) and I know I'm far from the only one. The sudden change to a new site probably didn't help them (why did they do that anyway?).

 

[Queen Michael]

I stopped watching anything on their site a while ago (don't even know why, just stopped going).

Funny thing is, I did the same. Quit watching. Don't know why. They still had just as much stuff I liked. Atop the 4th wall. The Nostalgia Critic. Jesu Otaku. So I don't know why I stopped. But apart from some AT4W, I haven't been going back.

By the way, whatever happened to all those new shows they were gonna make? The crowdfunded ones?

 

[Story]

Sorry to see this batch left on poor terms. Unlike Linsey who seemed to do it farther her career and JesuOtaku who felt burned out.
Regardless, I wish them all the best.
I'm thinking about supporting Obscurus Lupa on the new site since I really liked her work and she was very unique.

 

[Story]

By the way, whatever happened to all those new shows they were gonna make? The crowdfunded ones?

Were they called Nerdquest? Allison Pregler (Obscurus Lupa) had this to say (along with other things) in her farewell message:

"This is despite them having already promoted Nerdquest stuff and their own Indiegogo, which you might remember was given $90,000 for something they have yet to produce."

So my guess is that they haven't happened yet.

 

[Armadox]

By the way, whatever happened to all those new shows they were gonna make? The crowdfunded ones?

Were they called Nerdquest? Allison Pregler (Obscurus Lupa) had this to say (along with other things) in her farewell message:

"This is despite them having already promoted Nerdquest stuff and their own Indiegogo, which you might remember was given $90,000 for something they have yet to produce."

So my guess is that they haven't happened yet.

From what I've gathered the game show like video has been retaped up to 17 times without release, sometimes with the same guests. No, none of the shows promised was produced yet, and I figure I know why.

CA wanted to work more like a mainstream television channel, with less reviews and skits and more full blown shows. Mike Michaud has shown he doesn't care one bit for the reviewers and has used underhanded tactics to keep them working full steam to have site content without actually presenting them with any real benefits (exposure on the internet post 2009 is a hilariously out-dated concept. If you're good enough to gather a few hundred people, you are good enough to get a few thousand out of word of mouth and regular content up-dates.) With Mike and the managers seeing the producers as parasites, they tried rebranding Doug out of the already over-saturated review pull and into an actual show (Demo Reel, nobody got what was happening then, and it bombed). Now that they're losing content providers, they're grabbing up literally any show of wide ranges of production quality to plug the hole left by the dissenters, though I can't actually say that I can tell you the names of any of them (they came all at once, with no way to discern them individually and to many to go through one at a time. A case of to much of a good thing...)

The reason they said that the last anniversary movie was going to be their last was because, a. it was to expensive to fly the producers in, even without the cost of paying them, b. the dvd sales wasn't making the numbers they want, c. the producers were getting antsy, and was causing a stir behind the scenes, which means getting them all in one place would have been a powder keg, and d. the aforementioned theory that they expected to have been able to drop most of them on their ass by now in favor of their own Chicago content.

Not all content producers have been mishandled, as there are a few that makes enough at it to not rock the boat, but I'm betting that list is only a handful. Once CA fired their PR person, and Mike Ellis quit the connection between the producers and the management was one way. This is not how you run a business, nor how you treat seasoned entertainers.

 

[odolwa]

Mike Michaud has been a toxic presence on that site for so long, now. When CA was still That Guy With the Glasses, the amount of trolls running rampant was spoiling the community on the forum side of things, with no attempt whatsoever to regulate the hostility directed at either specific producers or fellow forum members.

Leon Thomas got it particularly bad at one point, and while I appreciate that not everyone will like every contributor, he was one of the few on the receiving end of a particularly nasty and sustained campaign of trolling. It got so bad at one point I felt compelled to contact Mike directly to finally do something about it. I asked that he make some effort of putting moderators on the site, of which there were absolutely none and never had been on TGWTG (in fact I'm pretty sure there aren't any there on CA right now). And his response? Nothing. Initially, anyway. Until a few days later when he and Cinema Snob made a short video update about what was going on at the site, concluding it by saying "And if you don't like how we do things around here? You can f**k right off". At that point, I lost all sympathy for the man.

Maybe they really don't need to care about their fans and fellow producers at this stage in the game, but it works both ways and we don't need to care about that site anymore, either. The only thing I don't get is where Doug fits into all of this. He seems like a really approachable guy, but these ass-hats he surrounds himself with are spoiling the whole thing for everyone. Maybe the lunatics are running the asylum over there, now. What a pity.

Rant Over.

 

[Diablo2000]

I stopped watching anything on their site a while ago (don't even know why, just stopped going).

Funny thing is, I did the same. Quit watching. Don't know why. They still had just as much stuff I liked. Atop the 4th wall. The Nostalgia Critic. Jesu Otaku. So I don't know why I stopped. But apart from some AT4W, I haven't been going back.

By the way, whatever happened to all those new shows they were gonna make? The crowdfunded ones?

I'd go further. Apart from History of Power Rangers (Which comes out every 6 months if we are lucky) I stopped watched completly.
I also liked Shameful Sequels (I guess that was the name), but it was way too infrequent for me to bother keeping up...
Shame Channel Awesome turns out as it did, there was once upon a time where I would visit everyday to see what's up.

 

[happyninja42]

Eh, I'm not really that upset by it. I didn't really find their content all that interesting at all. Obscurus Lupa and Phelous had a very annoying way they spoke, and they're stage presence in their clips just annoyed me. Oancitizen didn't really bother me, I just didn't find his content interesting.

I'm personally glad to see them go, as I got tired of seeing Phelous' face popping up all the time, looking stupid, while he reviewed something equally stupid.

As to their new content providers, the only one I find interesting so far is The Dom. I've enjoyed his stuff so far, and find he and I share a lot of the same tastes when it comes to games and why we like them. Other than that, I watch for Brad's Crew doing midnight screening reviews of movies, and that's about it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Whatever, so long as Doug keeps producing content I'm happy.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Seems like them there be a sinking ship to me son.

I honestly can't say I'm surprised, I stopped watching anything on their site a while ago (don't even know why, just stopped going) and I know I'm far from the only one. The sudden change to a new site probably didn't help them (why did they do that anyway?).

You and me both. I think it's a matter of changing tastes for me. I find myself growing increasingly weary of the hackneyed "angry reviewer nerd" persona. Bonus points if they insert superfluous sketches or storylines involving said persona. Nowadays I find myself turning to more subdued alternatives, like Lazy Game Reviews and Super Bunnyhop.

 

[Armadox]

Whatever, so long as Doug keeps producing content I'm happy.

Eh, Doug had the biggest presence, and he's starting to be funny again, but I wouldn't go so far as to say as long as he's there damned be the others. Especially since that attitude is exactly, literally, what has been causing the site so much trouble. That is how management sees it too, and has been snubbing other producers in favor of the boys from Chicago.

That's a hard pill to swallow because I do like Todd, Linkara, Oancitizen, Mike J, and yah, I can sit through a Blockbuster Buster if the topic is right. Andrew Dickman I have on Deviant Art, (CR as well, but I haven't really been paying him attention for a while) and would go to youtube for. His stuff is right silly.

I suppose I'll add their own sites and watch them from there, leaving CA completely until they get themselves together. This situation isn't the end of the world, but there was a lot of producers that looked up to CA, and seeing it fall apart has been a serious blow to them.

 

[Booklover13]

I'd go further. Apart from History of Power Rangers (Which comes out every 6 months if we are lucky)

FYI because of Patreon Linkara has a schedule now

http://atopthefourthwall.com/whens-the-next-history-of-power-rangers-coming/

Thus far he has manged to get Overdrive and Jungle Fury out on time.

 

[FPLOON]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA! I stopped going on the CA website for no reason whatsoever after watching Doug's Vlogs to the beginning(?) of Seasons 3 of Adventure Time[footnote]6-9 month ago?[/footnote]and this happens?? Well, that sucks...

Then again, I have (had?) no idea what's going on behind the scenes after the whole Indigogo thing, so there's that... Regardless, I wish Lupa and Phelous the best of luck in their future endeavors and, I guess, I'll catch up on what I've missed from Doug's Adventure Time Vlogs...

 

[Grace_Omega]

I've been hearing (via people who left earlier) that a *lot* of shit went on vis a vis the management being terrible that's never been made public. With so many people leaving, I wonder if some of it will come to light now...

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Good thing I don't go there anymore. The only person left on CA that I really pay attention to is Bennett the Sage, and I go straight to his Blip page.

 

[SoranMBane]

Oancitizen posted a thing: http://kylekallgren.tumblr.com/post/108118690279/a-farewell-to-awesome

No personal drama in this case, it seems. And, like in the other recent cases, he's still going to continue producing content, just not for Channel Awesome.

 

[Queen Michael]

Obscurus Lupa and Phelous had a very annoying way they spoke, and they're stage presence in their clips...

Whoa. Hold your hippogriffs. I get your complaints about Phelous' speech. I don't get your complaint about his stage presence, or Lupa's, or about Lupa's speech. Please explain.

 

[Darks63]

Its hard to blame them for leaving for any reason considering how badly dated the webpage design is on TGWTG. It is a nightmare to search for stuff and if your an infrequent viewer like me its easy to lose track of what you have seen due to inconsistent date stamping of vids.

In the Case of Phelous, Lupa, and Dickman who cares since you can see all of them on Phelous's website anyway. Which as a website works MUCH better than TGWTG. All but four of my Fav contributors have their won sites so I don't have to go to TGWTG. IF Maven, That Sci-Fi guy, LT, and Mike J got their own sites I would be set.

I have also heard it is basically Doug's Family and Friends who run all Channel Awesome's operations. In that I have heard in particular that Robb Walker is kinda of an asshole and difficult to work with. Nepotism is never a good thing in general which could explain why the site has been in decline for the last 3 years or so.

 

[Vault101]

]You and me both. I think it's a matter of changing tastes for me. I find myself growing increasingly weary of the hackneyed "angry reviewer nerd" persona. Bonus points if they insert superfluous sketches or storylines involving said persona. Nowadays I find myself turning to more subdued alternatives, like Lazy Game Reviews and Super Bunnyhop.

I prefer analysis and such, like Oancitizen Renegade cut ect

this doesn't bother me as the ones I followed were also on Chez apocalypse and I don't think theyre stopping anytime soon, I look forward to seeing what Lindsay will do next..I hope Booze your own adventure keeps going even though she said it doesn't get the views (I guess books don't garner much interest on the internet?)

I won't say its a sinking ship just yet since everyone jumps on that conclusion

Oancitizen posted a thing: http://kylekallgren.tumblr.com/post/108118690279/a-farewell-to-awesome

No personal drama in this case, it seems. And, like in the other recent cases, he's still going to continue producing content, just not for Channel Awesome.

this seems to be the case with the others...I also suspect it might be why Lindsey left...they just don't need channel awesome anymore

anyway I'm happy to hear an explanation that makes sense