Is This the End of Channel Awesome?

This is something that has weighed on me for some time. I’ve been a personal fan of the content creators on the website Channel Awesome for quite some time, but I noticed not too terribly long ago that there seemed to be a mass exodus of personalities from that site. Then came #ChangetheChannel, in which these departing creators used a Google document to air their grievances against Channel Awesome and its managing personnel. You can read that document here.

It is a very long list of grievances. Why did this bother me when I am clearly not affiliated with Channel Awesome? Well, when I first started making online content with my own blogs I was inspired by Doug Walker and his rag-tag team of critics which included Linkara, Obscurus Lupa, the Nostalgia Chick, and many… many others. So when I read about their horrible work environment, my heart went out to them. It sucks having a workplace that not only doesn’t appreciate you, but actively abuses you. A site that once held over 40 creative voices now has 8 by my last viewing. What seemed like the final nail in the coffin for Channel Awesome was Linkara’s departure because even in his personal interviews he seems like the kind of guy who tries to mend fences rather than burn bridges, and he voices on his own website what actions he tried to take to resolve the issues inside Channel Awesome. You can read that here.

Now, obviously, I am more of a blogger. You won’t find me on YouTube rambling on and on about the latest movie, but I did take inspiration from their self-aware humor, their candor when talking about issues they had with their media of choice, and most importantly their approachableness. That helped give my writing a voice, rather than just being pedantic and giving my readers a list of praises and grievances. I gained a better understanding of how to put that in an almost conversational context.

So what do we have here? We have a group of employees with a laundry list of complaints against their former employer. So why did I wait so long to talk about this?

I wanted to give Doug Walker, who plays the Nostalgia Critic on the site and is the face of Channel Awesome a chance to respond to these allegations and complaints, some of which were very serious, skirting the edge of full-on criminal activity. I wanted him to share his side of it, even if it was “You know, all this stuff happened behind my back. I am so sorry that it did.” That right there would have been fine for me.

And why Doug Walker, the least mentioned name in the whole document? Because it boils down to Doug Walker’s reputation being at stake; his brand that is on the line in all of this. When I poured over the document, which many people have, I see names like CEO Mike Michaud, Greg Michaud, and Mike Ellis, with Mike Michaud getting the most credit for the bad behavior. In fact, in the Google Document I linked above, it’s even stated that Doug Walker was not part of the management:

"Doug is not considered anything but talent, yet frequently is part of business calls and the like..." -Allison Pregler (Obscurus Lupa)

Again, why on Earth would I want a response from a guy who is touched on here and there in the document but not really part of the major problems? Because I have no visual reference for the Michauds or Mike Ellis, but I know who Doug Walker is. I know exactly who that guy is and I could pick him out of a crowd and if you are the face of a site that is having these many problems, then you need to say something. Anything at this point would be preferable to complete radio silence.

Well, almost anything. April 11, 2018, Channel Awesome posted this to their site.

I link these articles because while I will sum them up, I want you to have a fair shot at reading them and drawing your own conclusions. Channel Awesome’s response was… not great. It addressed snippets of the complaints, one that they could counter-argue with little difficulty; however, the broader complaints of mistreatment by management, mishandling of video contributions, and the basic breakdown of anything resembling a good corporate structure, were completely ignored. Also, at no point did they apologize for anything. I mean they took responsibility for a few things.

“We agree communication could have and should have been better. We got into this business based on our passion for content creation and have had many growing pains over the years. We always strive to learn from our mistakes and strengthen our skills.Have we made mistakes? Yes, we have. We even discuss some of our challenges in our behind the scenes videos. We’ve always focused on trying to entertain our viewers, shine spotlights on unknown talent and share our attention with various charities—and we hope to continue to do so moving forward.”Channel Awesome- Our Response

That is the written equivalent of shrugging your shoulders and saying, “Yeah, well, what are you going to do?”

Just to be perfectly clear, I was intent to reserve judgement until after all involved parties had a chance to tell their side of the story, even after The Dom and Calunnia jumped off Channel Awesome, even after the Gore Hound left, even after 80 percent of their creative content contributors up and left—and bear in mind if you lose 80 percent of anything, you have officially lost—even after all of that, I waited until I heard Channel Awesome’s response…

And we got “Well, what are you doing to do?”

Really… that’s what you’re running with? You are going to combat a 73-page grievance document with 13 clap-backs?

What Channel Awesome started, I think, was inspiring. After the Nostalgia Critic came along, we saw a huge slew of creative voice on YouTube, some of which joined Channel Awesome, many of whom did not and are doing just fine. There is a huge amount of talent out there offering criticism and praise for all sorts of media and I believe that burning force of nature was started by the first few sparks created by Doug Walker, so in that regard I praise him. But what I am seeing here is not the airing of a few grievances, but the end of an era. Yes, there are holdouts. Contributors like the Blockbuster Buster and Brad Jones are still there, but for how long? I don’t know, but the signs don’t look good.

Thanks for reading.

All of the creators mentioned above are the holders of their own IP’s.