G4 Announces New B4G4 Series

02/01/2021 11:37 am EST

G4 got fans buzzing with the announcement yesterday that favorites Attack of the Show and X-Play would be making a return to the network, but they aren't done with the new content reveals just yet. Today G4 revealed a new series titled B4G4, a weekly series that will air on G4's YouTube and Twitch channels leading up to the big launch of the G4 Network. It will include all kinds of content, including sketch comedy, game reviews, Esports content, music parodies, and more, and fans can submit their feedback and help shape the series and the content through G4's Reddit community.

Gus Johnson, or should we say G4 CEO Jerry Excel, introduces B4G4 in a hilarious video that actually makes us worry about his well being a bit, mostly because we're pretty sure he's drinking hand sanitizer. You can check out the full video above.

ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to G4's Head of Content Kevin Sabbe and Head of Brand Blair Herter all about the new G4, including how much of an effect fans can have on the series.

"I think the answer is blue sky. We're very much building this together," Herter said. "We look at B4G4 as it's a hybrid alpha and beta version of what... essentially, building a brand new network. I think there's the expected things, like what you just said, like maybe we can throw up some formats and have people vote on what they like or don't like."

"I think even taking that a step further, we announced this G4 Needs Talent initiative on social a number of months ago, and what started as really, for us, the opportunity to open up the doors to find the new G4 faces actually resulted in thousands of submissions where we're going to not only bring some faces from the community, we found a lot of incredible writing talent, producing talent, people that wanted to do social and things like that," Herter said.

"It's a combination of like, it's crowdsourced and co-op content," Herter continued. "It's a job search. It's them telling us programming-wise what we should be doing. They're on the ride with us. I'd say every time we think we've truly figured out the full amount of ways in which we can engage with the audience, somebody comes up with a different idea, it's like, 'Oh, we could do that, too. That sounds really awesome.' So, it's just ever evolving, and we're excited to be a part of it."

"Yeah, and I think that stems from a lot of the early feedback, and we continue to get this feedback," Sabbe said. "It's like, 'I love G4, because it was a place I always wanted to go be at. I wanted to work there. That was my dream. That's what got me into gaming and gaming entertainment,' and I think previous iterations, it was TV, there was just a higher barrier to entry to do those things. It was more just like I turn on my TV, and, 'Oh, I wish, and I hope and I dream, but that's Hollywood, and that's so far away.'

"This is not that. The Digital ecosystem has completely changed, as we know, self-distribution, self- all of that, so it actually makes it very accessible for us to partner remote and virtual production now, which we have fully. For a lot of those people at G4, because of COVID, we pivoted to a pretty full remote production model right now to maintain safety for everyone. We're able to collaborate now with large and small creators from across the country and across the world, and now they actually can work at G4. I think we're finally fulfilling some of those childhood dreams."

You can catch B4G4 on G4TV and on G4's YouTube and Twitch channels, and let us know what you think in the comments! You can also talk all things G4 with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!

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