Whatever Happened With That Esquire Network?

So I was sitting around surfing channels and I was trying to find something to watch. While I was scrolling through the guide I stumbled upon something I’ve been avoiding since its creation. Esquire Network. This whole network has been a target for major nerd and geek hatred, the gamer community especially.

If you don’t know about this network it literally the reason that Viacom/NBC Universal killed one of the premiere Gaming and Nerd Networks. G4 around the middle to end of 2012 announced that the network and all of its shows were done and they will becoming this new Esquire Network. This started a major uproar with the viewers of the network and boycotts, petitions, hate mail and other forms of protest to the birth of this thing started to flood NBC Universal’s doorstep.  That is a whole other blog post, but back to what we’re here today for.

Esquire was supposed to be a Network for men of modern-day. It was not supposed to be modeled after Spike TV (It’s major rival), it was to be just like the magazine that it took its name from. To be for more an urban and dare I say it… Hip, male, you know the guys who shop at AE and where dress shirts and skinny ties everywhere. That guy. I have a refined style but come on, we don’t need “Queer Eye For The Straight Guy” as an entire network. But they tried to bring something different to the table. They brought titles such as “Knife Fight” “How I Roll” and “Brew Dogs” “White Collar Brawlers”. They were different for what we expected and had some of an indie and gritty feel.

But what did I see as I scrolled through the current lineup for the network? Nothing but syndicated re-runs and infomercials and G4 implants that they are getting from NBC. What happened NBC? Did it not do what you expected, did it not reach the demographic that it was intended to? I’ll tell you what happened. It pissed off too many people and remember the boycotts and hate mail I told you about, it actually got through to NBC and they did not replace G4 with Esquire but they rebrand Style Network into the new unwanted child. And that’s one community that you don’t piss off is the fashion community. In its debut on September 23, 2013 and for the next few months it struggled to get viewers.at its peak it was at 109,000 houses, now it struggles to keep up with channels like Spike and OWN, Science, TVOne, and others with 45,000-53,000 houses while Spike and the others pull 500,000-700,000 on average days (and those are the bad days)

Esquire is trying to salvage what branding they have left and are moving into live streaming called “Esquire NOW” as the channel that you killed to lucrative channels to create struggles and seems to be on life support called syndicated re-runs such as Magnum P.I, Miami Vice, Burn Notice and The A-Team. Because that’s what I wanna really see. Were they not able to rip Walker Texas Ranger from WGN’s lineup? The magazine has not taken a hit from this venture at all the sales and subscriptions still hold firm and continue to steadily increase.

This should be a good reminder, how not to look over the people who you’re actually making the channel for just because you think this will be a good business venture. Trust me in the end I hope that NBC Universal does the right thing and gives back the jobs to the people of G4/Tech TV and Style Network and bring back the shows we really miss. Or at least do what you’re doing to Esquire and making them streaming channels. It’s just a humble nerd’s wish.