G4 Hits Reset Button

Looking to better serve its male 12-34 target audience, video-game network G4 will offer several new and revamped series and specials immersed in the gaming culture.

The 50 million-subscriber network will put its own stamp on popular TechTV show Screen Savers with the March 28 debut of Attack of the Show!,G4 senior vice president of programming and production Peter Green said.

Comcast Corp.-owned G4 acquired computer-centric TechTV from Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. last May for $300 million.

The live, daily show will offer a more irreverent look at technology than the information-driven Screen Savers, Green said. Attack -- which retains Screen Savers hosts Kevin Rose, Kevin Pereira and Sarah Lane -- will feature guests discussing the latest in games and other interactive technologies.

Attack, which runs at 7 p.m., will serve as the anchor lead-in for the network’s primetime lineup, which will include a one-hour block of video-game-instruction shows, X-Play and Cheat Sheets, at 8 p.m.; a technology-tinged biography series, Icons, at 9 p.m.; and video-game-review show JudgmentDay at 9:30 p.m.

New episodes of existing shows, such as CinemaTech, will occupy the 10 p.m. time slot.

On Sundays beginning April 10, G4 will devote the 10 p.m. hour to fast-moving cars dubbed “The Whip Set,” comprising a pair of half-hour original series -- Formula D and Street Fury -- according to Green.

The network will also premiere several specials over the next few months, notably Video Game Vixens (formerly titled Girls Gone Wired), a four-part limited series pitting female video-game characters against each other to determine the “Video Game Vixen of the Year.”

For more on G4, please see R. Thomas Umstead’s story on page 36 of Monday’s issue of Multichannel News.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.