#ChangeTheChannel

Oh, how the mighty fall.

So, it's not exactly a secret that I have been inspired into writing reviews by watching Channel Awesome: Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic), and everyone else who was, or still is, on the site (Brad Jones, Lewis Lovhaug, Allison Pregler, Joe Vargas, Nash Bozard, Jacob Chapman, Lindsay Ellis, Todd Nathanson, Kaylyn Saucedo, the list could go on). It's also not a secret that, were it not for Channel Awesome, this very blog would not exist. The NC was one of those online shows I took great pleasure in watching, sometimes coming back to the same episodes dozens of times. Oh, and the anniversary specials, let's not forget them: The first year anniversary brawl, Kickassia, Suburban Knights, To Boldly Flee and, to some extent, The Uncanny Valley. Joining the site was a dream for me, as it was for hundreds of fans out there.

Of course, while we saw these great talents improve and become better online critics and entertainers, we - the fans - were unaware of the nightmare behind the scenes. Not so much for the separate shows themselves, but for the enterprise as a whole. Stories date all the way back to the very beginning: Did you know that the Nostalgia Critic doesn't belong to Doug Walker? The rights to the character belong to the site's CEO, Mike Michaud. All the content producers who joined the site didn't sign any contracts, yet had to agree to some ground rules - one of them being to make, at minimum, one video every two weeks. Although there was no real oversight, and the focus was still all on the NC. The site WAS known as That Guy With The Glasses at the time.

The anniversary specials were the precise moment when things started going wrong; each film has a history of misadventures for multiple producers involved (examples range from people getting hurt during filming, to poor set conditions, to lack of food and water in spite of long filming days!). One would probably need to write an entire goddamn book to cover everything that has been revealed by various ex-producers of Channel Awesome during the last two weeks.

There had been signs of this back in 2012 after the release of To Boldly Flee, when some particularly sardonic commentaries made piques at actual behind-the-scenes drama. It reached a peak in January 2015, when Allison Pregler (then known under the nickname Obscurus Lupa) was fired, and her boyfriend Phelan Porteous (AKA Phelous), who also produced videos for the site, left to show his support for her. I should also mention that the site had seen some pretty rough times between To Boldly Flee and 2015; the epic, 210-minute film left viewers with the impression that it really WAS over. Doug retired the Critic to pursue other video projects. One of them was Demo Reel, which was tolerated by a few, disliked by some, outright hated by the crowd that wanted more NC. That particular decision had struck a blow on viewership, not just for Doug, but for everyone else on the site - with the main cash cow gone, some viewers jumped ship instead of staying for the dozens of video producers on That Guy With The Glasses.

What happened on January 2015? Well, to say Allison was "fired" isn't quite right, as she and the other producers weren't employees in the proper sense of the term (again: no contracts). This was at a time where, to make ends meet, content producers had to include breaks for ads within their videos (AKA midrolls), in order to benefit from monetization. This was shortly before Patreon became a viable alternative for creators. Midrolls were necessary for many, but not very popular in the eyes of the higher-ups at Channel Awesome. Especially Mike Michaud. The man was notoriously difficult to join whenever someone on the site had a question or a suggestion, and would often take weeks or months to respond. We are talking about the CEO here. Meanwhile, if he had a question for a producer, that producer had to reply very quickly. Instead of addressing the producers directly on Skype about midrolls, he would leave comments underneath their videos about the issues he had with them, because it's so much more dignified to hang the dirty laundry out in the open for all the fans to see.

Doug's answer to those worried about paying their bills was simple: Make more videos. Just overwork yourself for views, and the money will come in. I suppose his viewpoint made sense to him, the man who gathers hundreds of thousands of views on every video in a matter of days, while everyone else either struggles to gather an audience or doesn't get enough views to make a decent living from their art. Not to mention that many producers needed to keep a side-job for that reason. That's when Patreon came around. However, in private messages sent to everyone in the company, Rob Walker (Doug's brother, only marginally better than Michaud) explained that advertising a Patreon was basically "e-begging" (yes, really) and forbade producers from putting forward their Patreon pages in order to make ends meet. It took a minor controversy for the change to happen, but Michaud and the Walkers later caved in and allowed reviewers on the site to advertise their Patreon pages.

However, when the first Patreon ads were posted to Channel Awesome by Brad Jones, apparently they didn't message their "employees" (air quotes) to say that it was now OK. Allison confronted Mike about this, and he asked her if she had time for a quick call. She had things to do that day, away from the computer. Two hours later, Mike and Doug set up a Skype conversation with her - while she wasn't at home - and waited about 15 minutes for a response... and so Mike promptly fired her. Of course, I am reporting on this, but Allison has written her own piece about this, and her words will convey it better than I would. You can read the original article here, and view the Skype conversations here. For the record, I am bringing up the midrolls and Patreon cases as one of many poor decisions from the higher-ups of Channel Awesome, because it ties into the rest of the story.

More producers left on the same day as Allison and Phelan: Kyle Kallgren, Andrew Dickman, Lidsay Ellis, though Kyle and Lindsay's departure is unrelated. I should probably say that by 2015, a LOT of producers on Channel Awesome were planning to leave, for one or many reasons. Some of them had found their audience and were migrating to their own website or YouTube. Others simply couldn't stand the hypocrisy of the higher-ups, or felt restricted by the site. And then some others were genuinely fed up with the behind-the-scenes horror stories, or had seen their experience with the site go from okay to downright miserable, sometimes due to personal mental or physical health issues, a few too many tasteless jokes, or actual reprehensible behavior from certain folks... Each person who left had their reasons.

You'll probably tell me, "But Channel Awesome hired new producers in 2014! The site is doing okay! And Doug, he seems so nice!" Yeah, um... the big issue with Doug is that he basically has no say in the company, despite being the closest the site has to a mascot. Mike and Rob pull the strings, and the best Doug can do is listen to what's going on and, ultimately, side with his brother or Mike. It's self-preservation; Mike owns the rights to the Nostalgia Critic, after all. Doug is pretty much screwed if he loses the NC, and he seems deathly afraid of having to return to a non-creative job. Doug is either unaware of the behind-the-scenes crap, or he actively participated to it while remaining blissfully (or willingly?) ignorant of the harm done by his attitude towards the other content producers. And whenever he got caught into a controversy, he would either dance around the issue, or side with Rob and Mike. Which is what he did when Allison got fired. And if Doug was questioned about it on his Facebook page - or in person at conventions -, he would gladly block or ban anyone from speaking to him again.

Old news? Not really. The stories are spread across the entire history and lifetime of the company, but the ex-producers of Channel Awesome remember their experience. It was all sparked by a tweet posted by Allison Pregler on Twitter. The thread has since grown into a massive retelling of the situation, with dozens of awful situations retold and commented on.

I do recall shooting a crossover there where I was cornered about midrolls and cried in a bathroom. I also know they turned down at least one person offering to pay and use their studio because it would disrupt the flow of their own stuff. https://t.co/bd4jLV2s7W

— Allison Pregler 📼 (@Obscurus_Lupa) March 13, 2018

If you decide to read through that thread, set aside about two hours. I wasn't kidding when I said "horror stories". Some of those date all the way back to the first anniversary special, the "Brawl". And there may be even older stories. The thread itself has turned into  a Twitter hashtag movement.

I reported, long ago, on how I was blocked by Doug on Facebook for bringing up the situation in 2015 in person at a convention, as a sign of what would become CA's way of dealing with criticism. However, this isn't my story. This is the story of 19+ producers who got together and shared every last bit of awfulness behind the Channel Awesome company that they were willing to share. In fact, new events have been revealed since, stuff that hadn't been shared in the open three years ago. Many stories are horrifying. Of note, not every ex-producer has been willing to share, and those who don't want to talk about their years under CA must be respected in their decision.

Some of the producers involved in the thread got together to play Jackbox games, and the evening was streamed by Kaylyn Saucedo (MarzGurl) on Twitch. It was a special event to hear these online critics and producers discuss their past experiences, throw shade at the awful business practises, and rip the Walkers and Michaud to shreds at every chance they got while playing Drawful, Quiplash or Tee K.O.). The team spirit felt intact between them. Maybe it's because they were all sharing unpleasant experiences coming from the exact same source, but the whole felt like a reunion between friends and there was something oddly heartwarming about this.

The twitter hashtag #ChangeTheChannel was born a few days later, and has since spread the news about Channel Awesome's practises. The hashtag has a goal that might never come to fruition: Change the situation. Some fans ask for some actual Public Relations work from the Walkers or Michaud (which will never come, as they have about as much talent in PR as a slug has talent in footracing). Some fans are more direct: Fire Michaud, end the Nostalgia Critic, or close the whole site altogether. The new talents hired in 2014 will survive, as all these producers can be joined on social media, with their videos on YouTube (as every decent alternative video-hosting website has shut down since). The hashtag has led to the creation of videos discussing the situation, recaps of the thread, and much more. Here's a sketch by Cinematic Venom on the situation, taking potshots at the company's heads while recapping many of the events recounted in the thread. The producers who participated to the thread are also building a Google Document with every story they can remember about their time on the site, with the document to be made available when it's finished.

Speaking of PR, whoever manages the Channel Awesome Twitter account apparently went the same route as Doug did with Facebook. Every person who so much as mentions the hashtag #ChangeTheChannel in response to the tweeted advertisement for the latest NC episode (which, for the record, is about the recent live-action Jungle Book movie) has been unceremoniously blocked. It's practically a badge of honor now. The Streisand Effect does its thing, however: The more they try to hide the hashtag, the more people ask what it's about and why they want to hide it. Which leads to more people being blocked, and subsequently finding out.

If you don't want to bother reading through the thread (which is understandable, since it branches off like crazy), here are many of the situations described, some of which have been mocked in the video by Cinematic Venom.

• There have been instances of sexual harassment by people from the site. Lindsay Ellis was slutshamed during filming of the first year anniversary brawl, with lies about her being spread by someone whom she does not name. Then there was Mike Ellis, who was the COO of Channel Awesome along with Michaud (the CEO) and Rob Walker; Mike Ellis was fired a few years into the site's existence. Sean Fausz (AKA HopeWithinChaos) added to the thread a disturbing story of sexual harassment directed at him, from Mike Ellis, shared through Twitlonger. Also about Mike Ellis, the only PR person Channel Awesome has ever had, Holly Christine, had to be protected by other producers when the guy was finally fired.
• I haven't kept up to date with every piece of info about them, but there have been very worrisome reports of behavior from two of the earliest contributors to the site, the Amazing Atheist and That Aussie Guy... who were dropped early on, but maybe not quickly enough.
• On the topic of Holly Christine, the PR person of CA... Michaud wanted her to upload the videos to the site in the evenings, and she worked every day - including holidays, and even on the day of an important medical operation. In fact, she was fired on the day after the operation. Because she wasn't at work; She was recovering from the operation. Oh, and unlike others, she did sign a contract, one that prevented her from working for another network site for a few years.
• Doug has a bad track record with the female producers. The Nostalgia Chick was meant to be just that: Someone who reviews "girly" nostalgic shows and films, and nothing else, which is one reason why Lindsay distanced herself from the role eventually. Doug isn't the sexual harasser kind, but claims of misogyny have been circulating... Doug has also displayed a lot of terrible opinions about LGBT and trans communities, mostly through poor jokes and decisions (such as having a Wachowski played by a man durng a skit).
• During To Boldly Flee, a scene involves Nostalgia Chick being assimilated by Mechakara, a villain from Lewis Lovhaug's comic book review show Atop the Fourth Wall. The original draft of the script made it sound far too much like a rape she would come to enjoy, which she refused to play - modifications were made, but no, they didn't remove the awkward sex puns that immediately followed that scene. Later in the movie, Lindsay (as a Nostalgia Chick turned into a parody of Seven-of-Nine from Star Trek) fights Allison, and both women were uncomfortable with the scene. Instead of listening, Doug brushed off their demands and basically went "Nyeeeeeeeeeeeeeh justdoit."
• Also about To Boldly Flee: The filming of this 8-part, 3.5 hours long miniseries (or movie?) took place over 8 days, with days of filming often as long as 18 hours. Doug had to be told basic movie production things, like having water and food for the actors to use between takes. Doug wouldn't bother studying each reviewer's character to portray them more closely to the way they are in their separate shows, leading to situations like the one described here by Lewis Lovhaug, AKA Linkara.
• Again with To Boldly Flee: The nightmares continued in the special effects department. For many scenes, Phelan Porteous (Phelous, and Allison's boyfriend) worked on the special effects, for free no less. Showing them to Doug, he at first received a very positive response. However, Doug and Rob apparently were dissatisfied and thought Phelan was half-assing his unpaid special effect work, so they sent another producer (Welshy) to spy on him to make sure he was actually doing the work. Welshy, being smarter than that, told Phelan about the situation. Read Phelan's own actual post about the situation, posted on January 2015.
• Speaking of which! Yet another PR disaster, when Allison was fired and some others quit along with her, someone at CA posted an update to the site: "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." Let me repeat: "would like to announce". Not "is sorry to announce". Oh, how two words can change the entire meaning of a message. They didn't even bother to spell Phelan's family name right!
• On January 23rd, 2014, Justin Carmichael (known by his username JewWario) shot himself in the head in a bout of severe depression. Mike Michaud refused another producer (Nerd to the Third Power)'s offer to make a tribute video for Justin, basically saying "You're not big enough, it's not gonna give us enough views". Subtext being that it won't bring enough ad revenue. Because that's what matters in homaging a friend, amirite? Also in the following week, Doug Walker made two suicide jokes that couldn't have been timed more poorly - and one of them is the basis of an entire review.
• On the switch from That Guy With The Glasses to Channel Awesome, a few producers were let go, with their video archives never transferred to the new website... and were never told about it. One of them was Benjamin Daniel, AKA Benzaie.
• As stated in Allison's Tweet posted earlier, the Walkers refused to lend their studio to other reviewers, despite them at first saying they could open it to be used by various reviewers.
• There was that time Channel Awesome held a Kickstarter and collected 90,000$ to improve the studio and create a few more shows. The money ultimately went into a game show that lasted a few measly episodes (because what's the interest in an online, trivia-answering game show?). None of their other Kickstarter promises were achieved, and it's been said that the only reason they did do the game show after all was because Kickstarter had begun investigating them to see where the money had gone.
• And oh yeah, I mentioned the person behind the Channel Awesome twitter account blocking every single person who so much as mentions this whole controversy, didn't I? For guys who make a living critiquing stuff, the Walkers sure have a problem with criticism... To make it more insulting, this is happening one year after "Where's The Fair Use" (#WTFU), a hashtag campaign started by Doug to call out the system behind YouTube, which makes it all too easy for malicious people to abuse the Fair Use system in order to steal monetization from videos, especially reviews and the like... and how YouTube completely ignores creators.

And that's not getting into other horror stories that may not involve the Walkers or Michaud, but different video producers who have done reprehensible things and received no consequences. Here's just one example...

Here's another list compiling even more examples of horrid business management from Channel Awesome - a list more complete than mine.

Sorry for the very long and very dark article, but even as I post this nearly two weeks after it started, the story just won't end. It's still going on. After the hashtag was formed, more people from the site left, notably Todd Nathanson, Lewis Lovhaug, William DuFresne (AKA That Dude in the Suede). I suggest you keep an eye on that hashtag, as it will keep on growing. My advice is: Look for every content creator you like from Channel Awesome, those who left and those who are still there. Follow their websites, their YouTube and Twitch channels, their Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr pages. Drop Channel Awesome completely, but not the people who are/were on it. All of them deserve views, except Doug.

EDIT: The producers have now released their document. 69 pages. I talk about it in my second article on the matter, an update to this one, and I also talk about Channel Awesome's "apology" (I couldn't air quotes more if I tried).