G+_Brandon Giesing / CosiC Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Originally shared by Brandon Giesing / CosiCast My thoughts on TWiT's 2016 Schedule Some of you may know that I wasn't a big fan of the past two years of TWiT. From TNT going bad[^1] and most of my favorite hosts leaving[^2]; I was eager to see what they were going to do this year after they announced Jason Howell and Megan Morrone taking over TNT. Know How I was obsessed with this show when it came out with Iyaz and at that point it was the only TWiT show I had seen every episode because the length was right. When Iyaz left and Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ took over, I didn't mind as he is still a great personality. What I didn't like is that instead of being a good tutorial type show, almost everything become focused on the maker stuff like Quadcopters and Arduino. That stuff is good but for me it wasn't the appeal of the show. I want stuff like "how to set up an email server", "how to make your life more productive", etc. Know How for me was more software than hardware. This is why (I'm hoping) the change they are doing is going to help! Basically, they are expanding it to twice a week with one show (the current Thursday) being focused on maker stuff and the other (new Monday) being focused on stuff mentioned above. Along with that, Coding 101 is folded into the show (more below). Tech News Today This is the main one I am excited about! Jason has to be one of my favorite and funniest TWiT hosts. To have him host TNT will be amazing. Megan was one of those people I didn't like at first but I just adore now. Her fast paced style is perfect for news. I also love that it's moving back to the night time slot! I don't know the format or anything else at this point but I hope it turns out great. Before You Buy/iFive/Coding 101/TN2 These ones are a bit sad but I understand the reasoning and why it's happening. Basically, they are merging some shows to make the content better overall and more specialized. BYB is going to be split up with the reviews moving to their topic show (Android to All About Android, iOS to iOS Today, Mac to MacBreak, Microsoft to Windows Weekly, etc.) with any other stuff going to The New Screen Savers. This is a great idea as maybe I don't want any Apple reviews, now I just watch AAA and TNSS (as I do already) for them! iFive is merging with iOS Today since they are both iOS shows. Again, it makes sense to consolidate to improve overall content. As mentioned above, Coding 101 is merging with Know How. Even though I never watched C101, it always seemed like a KW for coding so it makes sense. Lastly, TN2 is merging back into TNT. With Megan being the TN2 host and now a part of TNT, it makes sense to move TNT back to the night slot. Also, with the initial split, TN2 was a catchup program for any news after TNT and if there wasn't any new stories, it was mostly just a recap. With a lot of the stories being around that time (and morning ones being more developed), it just works better at that slot. The main thing I would miss is that shows like iFive and TN2 were short snippets. Even if you didn't watch constantly, they were quick to watch in your free time. Since 2 years ago, they have solved it with TWiT Bits so assuming that day's bit is the TN2 style news feed or iFive's style 5 tips, that could be a replacement. Back to Events This will be the first year in a long time that TWiT will be doing the big events like CES. That was always one of my favorite things. Now, I don't know if they are going to be in-person as before or if they are going to do it remote; but in-person would be amazing! My thoughts/suggestions Overall, TWiT is looking to be its best in a while! Now, there still could be improvements. First with the merged shows, why not merge iOS Today and MacBreak Weekly into a Apple Today/Weekly? It's always made sense as they cross topics over a lot. Now obviously they are different formats as one is a roundtable and another is an app showcase, but I think it could work if they did a similar format to AAA with the news and discussion, hardware reviews, and app news/arena. Second, This Week in Google. I love this show but even they admit it's not all Google. Why not rename it to This Week in Cloud (TWiC) or Cloud Weekly (CW) or something else? It reflects the content better and could allow even more topic expansion. Lastly, More Variety! Yes, they have tried it many times with shows like Game On, TWiYT, redditUP, etc. All were canceled basically because low downloads as a lot of people do audio-only. I consider TWiT less of a CNN of Tech and more a Geek Network. This means it should appeal to all types of Geeks! From Gamers, Makers, Coders, TV and Home Theater, News Buffs, etc; their should be a show to cater the needs of all Geeks. Yes, those shows also had other problems and may have been too specific; but TWiT has learned as the schedule this year shows! Bring back Game On but make more like TNSS instead of TV. Create a show for TV Fans. Make amends with old hosts/guests. Do that News Ticker you wanted The main thing is that TWiT can make mistakes and things may not work at all; but sometimes too many mistakes are made and they cancel stuff that actually would have worked. But you learn! Since Game On, they have gotten better at TV-style production without over doing it (TNSS). They have learned not to make shows that cover similar topics resulting in less quality content. So for 2016, we need to give TWiT a chance to come back to their former glory and not hate them for things that happened years ago. ------------------------------- Sorry for the motivational speech and long post but I wanted to share my thoughts. [^1]: I will admit, it improved over time but it just never got back to a good point [^2]: Again, I have gotten used to the new ones and they are better sometimes https://twit.tv/posts/inside-twit/2016-programming-changes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Elizabeth Whitmire Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 Merging MacBreak with iOS Today? That would never work. One show a week would never be enough for all of that - it would be 3 hours long.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Brandon Giesing / CosiC Posted December 19, 2015 Author Share Posted December 19, 2015 Elizabeth Whitmire Well, TWiG is almost always 3 hours long XD But they could do like with Know How and still have two shows but with shared resources. However, I don't think it would be 3 hours as there's duplicate content a lot of times so it would most likely be max 2 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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