About G4 Specials
Anything that isn’t an on-going series is labeled as a G4 Special. G4 Specials are often times special behind the scenes looks at upcoming games or movies. A semi-series of shows called “GameMakers”, not related to the current GameMakers, (previously called Icons) is included as a G4 Special which follows a game from beginning to finish, production wise. G-Phoria specials, E3, CES, AEE and Comic-Con coverage are also sometimes listed under this title.
Recurring G4 Specials
 E3 Live
Every year in it’s existence, G4 has devoted an entire week to cover E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Typically G4′s shows travel to the expo center to do on-location reports, interviews and demos. G4′s headline shows (now AOTS and X-Play) usually air their episodes for that week live on the show floor. Starting in 2007, G4 begin airing Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony’s entire press conferences live. In the past, G4 has also hosted round table discussion shows with various industry experts and G4 hosts talking about their E3 expectations. This is G4′s highest rated period of the entire year. |
 CES Live
Previously covered by TechTV, G4 expanded it’s coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show. Attack of the Show now does two live days from the show floor with tech demos and interviews. |
 Comic Con Live
G4 began covering the annual Comic-Con in San Diego in 2006. Typically Attack of the Show is live from the floor and features interviews with celebrities, artists and fans. |
 Adult Entertainment Expo
Since CES and the Adult Entertainment Expo are typically around the same time, G4 usually, for some reason, pairs the two together and covers both. AEE coverage is typically pre-recorded, heavily censored and is aired later at night due to it’s adult content. Attack of the Show covers porn stars, adult toys and other various porn-related news during the special. |
 G-Phoria
Formerly a high-budget award show featuring celebrities and a live audience, G-Phoria has dropped the glamor and scaled back in recent years, to the point of being a special yearly episode of X-Play. Later G-Phorias have focused more on the games and have took on political themes as viewers vote on all the winners. Several G-Phorias in the past were hosted by the infamous Hal Sparks, who also hosted Video Game Vixens. There was also a short series called “The Road to G-Phoria” which were round table discussion shows about G-Phoria nominees. |
Other Specials
GameMakers – Not to be confused with show “Icons” that was renamed “GameMakers,” the GameMakers G4 Specials were half hour features that followed the development of a game’s production. Typically the special would be shown around the time the featured game was released to consumers. Some episodes have even been packaged with video games, such as FASA’s MechAssault 2 on Xbox.
Free Stuff – Free Stuff was a summer/winter special hosted by Morgan Webb and Kevin Pereira that reviewed new tech products and games, then gave them away by random drawing to viewers who entered in a code on the website given by “Lloyd the Chimp” during commercial breaks. Free Stuff had a limit run during the summer of 2007 and was revived for a Christmas Special later in the year.
Although billed as a live show, some viewers questioned whether or not some scenes were pre-recorded, or the entire show itself, as G4 supposedly aired two live versions of the show, one for each coast. It was reported that the west coast airing was simply a recording of the original east coast airing with the codes and winner’s names replaced, however this was never confirmed. The hosts also did not ever mention winners by name, rather, their names were simply displayed on screen near the end of the program. G4 attributed this the show being on a 7 second delay.
Videos
|
The intro used for all the E3 2006 shows. It’s PS3 vs 360 vs Wii! Added 03/31/07
|
|
Kevin Pereira gets demo of PC-shooter “Prey” from the developers. Added 03/31/07 |
