Attack of the Show!

I cannot hate on the show. When the old (and better) tech TV had to hit the bricks, the channel was reformatted and new shows stepped in. "Attack of the Show" is the replacement for the Screen Savers, with 3 co-hosts in the beginning. They were Kevin Rose, Kevin Pereira and Sarah Lane. Brendan Moran came to be something of a co-host as well, but he mostly did prerecorded pieces for the show. Kevin Rose decided to leave the show, and eventually there was a contest to see who would be the third host, but that didn't pan out for some reason.

Eventually (I just learned this from this very IMDb messageboard) Sarah Lane and Brendan Moran moved on because (hey, this is what I read) the two got married. That was a big secret to me! Now there is a new female co-host, the not-as-hot (my opinion) Olivia Munn. She's hiding something in those tops she wears, while Sarah Lane had a perfect body and she wasn't afraid to show it.

AHEM! Sorry.

"Attack of the Show" deals with everything young people want to know about. It's music, movies, comic books, the internet and television. This is what's great about the show. If you don't want to bother with scouring the net or waste time watching MTV, you can get all you want on AOTS. Some segments and bits they do are funny. They have regular guests and contributors who are in the industry, as well as guests who range from insignificant internet stars to actual big names.

Even though the hosts aren't as geek as I'd like them to be, I still have found "Attack of the Show" to be entertaining, even with its latest lineup.

Really the only thing that I ever watch on the G4 network is "Attack of the Show" mostly I catch it on late night reruns. I mostly watch it for the internet news and it's fun seeing the wild you tube video clips. And on occasion the latest movie news is informative and from time to time the show shows trailers of upcoming blockbusters before anyone else. Also the interviews with stars and computer tech people is okay, and the games and DVD reviews are worth a look. Most of all the spice and icing on the cake is the show's good eye candy of young hot sexy female host. First up is Candace Bailey yet she's a runner up to my main viewing squeeze Sara Underwood. Sara's so hot I remember her "Playboy" past and her recent "Maxim" photo shot of her in a flowered pink bra was so hot! Overall the series "Attack of the Show" was a fun little ride it never took it's time to serious, but it was a fun informative watch with some Sara sugar and Candace spice.

The hosts of this show are terrible... I've sat through the show multiple times and not even cracked a smile. These people just aren't funny. Plus they are just unpleasantly awkward and impossible to relate to. The skits are horrible, only made worse by their terrible acting and their capitalization on sex. I'm not biased by having seen Screen Savers as other people have mentioned... I am young and love gadgets and stupid random humor... But this just simply a bad show and I don't get why it is still in a prime time slot. Their short bits during commercials of other shows are pretty good because they are informative and short... But I change the channel when Attack of the Show actually comes on.

As a flagship show, Attack of the Show (AOTS) is endemic of the larger fall of G4 TV; it is a show (and a station) that has fallen so far that it parades sex to try and cover its glaring faults. Its predecessor, The Screen Savers, was a venue for troubleshooting technology problems and scouting out the latest and greatest in technology. It was a nice show with a likable staff and it was fun to see some of the modding and other experiments the crew could put to together.

The acquisition of TechTV by G4 bothered some longtime fans of the station, but early returns were actually promising. The emphasis on gaming was a nice addition and I really enjoyed a lot of the coverage of E3 and other big entertainment events.

Unfortunately, AOTS now stands as but a shell of its former self. Those overseeing the channel have shifted the focus of the channel away from technology and gaming and toward anything that might elicit drool from young adult men. The result is that AOTS spends as much time parading Olivia Munn or touting the adult film industry as it does covering games. It is so bad it is practically unwatchable.

While some may get puerile joy out of this sort of thing, those who genuinely enjoy gaming may wonder where the good coverage went. Equally troubling, young gamers who might tune into G4 thinking their getting gaming - that active gaming group between 10-15 - are instead being fed things aimed toward a more mature audience. On a channel like HBO or Cinemax, things like that are expected. On G4, it's tragic.

At least SpikeTV, another male-aimed channel, has good programming like CSI. AOTS, and G4, has very little good left to offer.

Too bad, really.

This show is what happened to The Screen Savers after G4 got its hands on it, taking it from a useful source of computer-related information to a show that had as its high point the shoving of a miniature web server up someone's posterior.

As G4's ratings plummeted, they moved away from their original target audience, gamers, to generic hormone-driven young men, adding eye candy to the staff and a sex advice segment. Now even the gamers who applauded the show initially are turning away in disgust. I look forward to the show's, and the network's, overwhelmingly overdue and well-deserved demise.

UPDATE: O frabjous day! AOTS is over, as is G4 as a whole. In a single lapse into worthwhile viewing, there was a Newhart-style ending with Leo Laporte telling Patrick Norton what a weird dream he had.