Jeremy “Junglist” Ray axed from Good Game, the plot thickens…
Good Game on ABC2 has really come a long way since its awkward inception several years ago – what started as a bit of a dud-with-potential has gradually evolved over the years into a good weekly dose of TV, and huge props go out to the team for working so hard on it over the years.
Which makes the recent event of co-host from day 1, Jeremy “Junglist” Ray, being axed from the show with little in the way of explanation or warning so disappointing.
Now before I jump any further, I don’t want to start on all the unnecessary hate being directed towards Bajo’s new co-host Hex, as I think she did a great job on Monday and is, I believe, a good addition to the team. My issue is with the sudden axing of Junglist and the evidence that ABC’s Management is meddling with a successful program and has the potential to mess up all the excellent work the GG team have done over the years.
The frustrating part is that Junglist is busy letting people know the truth of what’s been said behind closed doors, but due to confidentiality agreements, the GG crew can only respond so far. There may well be bad blood on both sides, but we can’t know for sure because nobody is talking.
The whole move does smack of unnecessary managerial tampering/micromanagement, particularly as Junglist has shared that the higher-ups aren’t fussed with knocking out their core audience (their bread and butter, if you will), as they’re hoping to mix things up to increase the show’s appeal to a larger audience. While this may make inroads in the short-term, the problem with ABC Management is that is fails to take into account how difficult it will be to hold the attention of the masses during ebbs and flows of interest in gaming – by keeping their core audience satisfied, it ensures there is a continual flow of interest in the show. For the distributors and developers of the games as well, it’s a mixed move – their games may get broader exposure to different market segments, but it means their missing the opportunity to market or present their games to their core audience, something particularly important when you have close, competitive releases (e.g. Forza 3, the new NFS title and DiRT 2 released close together) and want to try and sway the core buyers towards your product. Dilute the viewership, and you reduce the chance to sell the finer details about your creation to the audience that appreciates them the most. It’s like a HiFi speaker manufacturer like VAF trying to market and sell their speakers (and price tag) to consumers who shop exclusively at K-Mart based on their awesome audio fidelity, when the consumers for that market will be driven more on low prices than the quality of the end-product (and for the record, VAF make amazing loudspeakers).
If you’re curious about getting some neat summaries of the situation and lending your support for gibing Jung a fair go, check out Save Junglist (www.savejunglist.com) for some summaries of the forum posts on the GG forums, links to social networking sites, posters and more info on sending your thoughts the upper channels at the ABC, the article on TV Tonight’s blog ‘Game on: Former ABC host slams axing as “a lie”’ (www.tvtonight.com.au/2009/10/game-on-former-abc-host-slams-axing-as-a-lie.html), and there’s also an online petition ‘Keep Jeremy “Junglist” Ray In Abc’s Good Game!’ (www.gopetition.com/online/31631.html) available too.
Again, just to reiterate – I love the show, Hex and Bajo and the crew and producer are all awesome, I’d just like to see Jung get a fair go in this, as the cloak-and-dagger stuff is completely unnecessary.
