Know How Could Be the Next Show On The Chopping Block

Stay still would ya
Stay still would ya
It looks like the rising bandwidth cost is quite the obstacle for TWiT and its dwindling savings. When it was reported that free video from Cachefly will be no more, we knew bad news was on the horizon. The next batch of cancellations seems to be the video shows that do not make money. That means you Padre! And it means Know-How!

Two Hour Come to Jesus meeting with the CeHO
Two hour “Come to Jesus” meeting with the CeHO

What could be the result of that long meeting? Who could want to be in a room with FMCP that long? Well it appears that the future of Know How is in jeopardy, for this was posted shortly after.

Know How Dear John Letter. Oh shit.
Know How Dear John Letter. Oh shit.

Guest SubmissionAn amazing bit of Triangulation-level-research by a contributor noticed a meeting on Leo’s calendar with Lisa and Padre in the Tea Room, the meeting was followed by a desperate plea for viewers from Padre. Remember folks, don’t trust this site, it’s made-up facts, according to Leo.

Update: Featured Commenter

“The Patrick Klepto” posted a truly genius comment that deserved to be featured in the article:

“Padre is good friends with video. They realized they were misusing video. So instead if sprinkling video throughout the network, maybe there’s a show that video would like to do. Not a show that it CAN do, but a show that specifically fits its talents and its passion.”

42 thoughts on “Know How Could Be the Next Show On The Chopping Block”

  1. The intention of the show was good, but the execution unfortunately poor. It’s yet another show on that same set, with little structured knowledge. I quit watching a few months ago…. I couldn’t sit through another drone episode. I got sick and tired of his fascination with drones and quadcopters.

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  2. TWiT is in a stalemate, in that we are now in a generation where the in-depth reviewers outweigh the back of the box readers. TWiT was great when YouTube reviewers weren’t around and smartphones weren’t the norm. Before people loved the staff’s daily input on other people’s new stories. Now? Every body is knowledgeable about tech and basically can do exactly what TWiT does 24/7.

    I’m not saying everybody doesn’t know their stuff. I’m saying that they all know how to read technical specs and sound like they are teaching you something about it. And the ones that do know a thing or two are long gone from this establishment.

    Honestly at this point the only time I know they’re going to be actually knowledgeable about something is when they’re spewing Ads.

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    1. Well said!
      I’m down to watching TWiT (when JCD, Jolie, or Jerry Pournelle are on) and Windows Weekly (because Paul & MJ are informative) and it’s fun to hear Leo spout his lack of knowledge.

      That Prosper advert is creepy. It seems like crowd sourced usury.

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  3. The in depth content creators far out weight the watered down content TWiT is creating. Come for the tech stay for the goofing around, just doesn’t cut it in a world where we are too busy, and need to analyze our time management.

    If we are going to spend an hour consuming content, it has to be worth our time. It seems like the constant drone and quad-copter episodes just make these shows not worth the time. I often wonder who exactly these know-how shows are geared towards?

    The things I need to “Know-How” to do don’t ever seem to be covered, leaving me going elsewhere for quality content. I get it that Padre works for free, and that he is into these Drones, but if you want to gear your show towards teaching us how to do something, I suggest being more practical. Iyaz had the right Idea in the beginning, going out on location showing us how to mount a TV for example. It was like Bob Villa for tech. Watching Padre solder a few wires together on an adrino just as a “Hobby” is just no useful information to the general public.

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    1. For a guy who has described his radio listeners as idiots, TWIT’s tech content is, like Leo’s waste line, rather fluffy.

      And judging by the evolution into “This Week in Virtual Porn”, getting fluffer by the day.

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    2. >The in depth content creators far out weight the watered down content TWiT is creating.

      Live TWiT broadcasting runs in the evenings where I am, I just have it playing in a window on my desktop as “background noise” while I do other things.

      The thing about TWiT output is that you can listen to hours and hours of it and not learn very much at all(OK, there are odd exceptions). They cover technology, but it is at a fairly popularist level, the kind of thing you’ll pick up from any general tech news site. General tech news e.g. BBC Tech, gives the public the mistaken belief they are knowledgeable.

      TWiT generally caters for people interested in IT but does not cater for anyone looking for highly technical coverage. As a method of educating it is a mirage.

      If you want to be a tech expert turn off TWiT and find more knowledgeable and productive sources.

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      1. TWIT is really kind of mindless background noise. You hear the same narrative about every topic and some of Leo’s go-to factoids and wisdoms are over a decade old.

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      2. Well, they started out with intelligent insight by intelligent people. Leo’s friends sitting around a table talking about the INDUSTRY.

        It was, TWiT general INDUSTRY news. Leo had great thinkers on every week like Calicanis, JCD, Ryan block. Smart people who had smart things to say. Macbreak Weekly which was also about INDUSTRY, but focused on Apple. That was always fascinating because Leo had a good line up of thinkers who could speculate about what Apple would or should do next. It was captivating. Yes there were laughs but there was always good information.

        Leo had a few shows that were generally the same, with other good content on science, and they did a pretty good job covering events back then.

        He then adding a pretty good news show with Tom. About around the Time.

        Erik Lanigan looked like the first breakout hit on TWiT. A guy who really passionate about tech, you could just tell, he loved to talk about the industry. He could hold his own. It looked like Erik might be the first real branch off from the network just being centered around Leo.

        The Cottage was splitting at the seams, but everyone at TWiT were hard core geeks. Leo was still maintaining a level of professionalism, and fun.

        A perfect storm was brewing at TWiT.

        Leo started making a lot of money, he had Lisa now, and if there is one thing you can say about her, she was able to produce advertisers.

        Suddenly it appeared that Leo, fell in to a mid life crisis. He was punch drunk with cash, horney as fuck, and his narcism flared to such a level only NASA could view his Ego. He needed power! He needed pussy, and he needed money. He wanted everyone to know he was boss, and he wanted the world to know (especially the tech industry) how successful he was.

        He needed a big crescendo. Build a MILLION dollar studio! That will show everyone how successful he is.

        Meantime you have Lisa running the company. She knows advertising. So they had to find a formula. Or at least try.

        They used TechTV as the model. Any show ideas they could come up with. The idea, fill air time with something tech related, and stuff some ads in, and boom you have money.

        They lost their way. They forgot about the most important part of the formula. The audience. Tech enthusiast are smart. Smart people hunger for knowledge.

        With Leo flaming and dripping with ego, and Lisa playing CEO, the workplace became toxic. Stifling. Sarah couldn’t even change the background of the news set.

        Leo reading Steve Jobs autobiography started to become more of a demanding boss. Lisa and Leo would talk behind employees backs. Accuse employees of not doing their jobs, scheme on them. Totally unprofessional.

        With the affair going on, and later the open relationship, Lisa started playing the mommy role. She was determined to make Leo’s life better. They fixed things so Leo didn’t have to do ANYTHING, but show up to do a show. No though, no prep, not even show up on time.

        With money flowing in crazy, Leo was drunk on riches. It started making him a little silly. He didn’t have to worry about anything. So the real Leo slowly started coming out on the Air.
        He would say anything about anyone on Air, burn bridges, and chew people up and spit them out.

        The audience started seeing what Leo was really like. With Leo not really putting any effort into the content, Lisa protecting Leo, and trying to prove herself as a CEO, they both eliminated any threat to themselves. Any employee who even dare assert themselves or tried to do anything on their own was thrown to the wind.

        They looked around and tried to find people they could USE. YouTube stars, people with a lot of Twitter followers etc. Then it was, who is desperate that we can take advantage of.

        The audience started getting disgruntled. Total Drama was even in the works.

        The content went further and further downhill. But they are still riding that first wave. But they now see the shore. It’s time to downsize.

        In all this time, there has been very little integrity to the content or the audience.

        I am not sure if this is what really happened, but I am just speculating.

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        1. This is EXACTLY my thoughts on TWiT.

          In the past, my entire commutes (2.5+ hrs a day) were filled with TWiT shows, I wore TWiT T-shirts, I recommended TWiT to any tech savvy friends.

          Today, the only thing listen to on TWiT is Windows Weekly and AAA. The rest of my listening is filled with shows like Android Central, What the Tech, the Ihnatko Almanac, Pointless Podcast, etc, etc.

          TWiT content has degraded and Leo CLEARLY doesn’t listen to criticism – professional criticism that is necessary to stay relevant. That is the #1 issue. Leo’s ego is so big, that he thinks no matter what he does – his fans will follow.

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  4. “Take XXX to the next level” one of the most fuzzy and annoying business buzzwords. It doesn’t tell you anything.
    What is the next level and on which level are we currently ?

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  5. Was I mistaken, but did Leo take an ad from Intel? Didn’t I hear him give some speech where he said he would only take ads from non-computer-related companies so there was never any conflict of Interest. HELLO conflict of interest.

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    1. This AD was nauseating and fucking stuck out like a dick pic.

      At least we know the Nature Box ™ ads are on the up and up as evidenced by Laporte’s blimping condition.

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    2. I found it interesting that they kept mocking the Intel story for being boring, but still did the Intel ad.

      It’s the side effect of podcasts – in general, not just Twit – allowing hosts to do content *and* adverts.

      I know it’s common on US radio, but that doesn’t make it right. It’s like native advertising where a website gives up their ethics and makes staff writers do whatever they are told by sponsors.

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    1. It’s not just you.

      The latest show to be ruined is iPad today. Even though I’m not am iPad user I enjoyed watching the different apps they found. Now it’s just another talking head show where they discuss the stories they gleaned from Engadget.

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      1. With iPad Today it became extremely annoying that Leo had so little basic knowledge of iOS (and often just gives plain wrong suggestions, answers and advise).

        Leo tries to put as little preparation as possible into the shows he’s hosting. Embarrassing and rude for his guests and co-host.

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        1. Doing one’s own research and disregarding Leo’s advice is the most efficient way to go. He doesn’t do his research, he doesn’t follow up and he doesn’t stay current. Laporte’s tech advice is just a waste of time.

          If you want to own the latest Android every few weeks, or you want to get diabeetus, he’s your (womanly) man.

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  6. Prediction: Know How episodes will end and the show will become a recurring segment segment on The New Screen Savers.

    You know, how Systm was folded into Tekzilla. Oh wait…

    (which now that I mention it is a very similar situation. Systm was a how-to show a la Know How, was canceled and promised to be folded into Rev3’s tech variety show, and was never seen or heard from again)

    But I’m kind of expecting this to be the new norm. Now that they have TNSS, they can cancel shows and say “It just didn’t make sense to have a weekly, hour-long show” and suddenly you have Denise Howell giving a two-minute legal explanation every 6 weeks as a replacement for TWIL.

    But I really think that within the next few months, a lot of the shows are going to get folded into TNSS, including Know How, iFive, and Android App Arena. Those will probably legitimately be folded in (at least at first, then they’ll become less common, then disappear all together). Others will just die. Kind of like how “you won’t even miss Snubs because she’ll be reviewing products on BYB!” Only now it’ll be “You won’t even miss Scott Wilkinson because he’ll bring his HTG to a bi-monthly segment on TNSS!”

    Maybe this show was a good idea for padding Lisa’s pocketbook, even if the numbers are in the toilet. Fire all the regular hosts and cancel their shows, then you just have to pay them for their 5 minute segments every month. And it’s all okay because you can get so much more in-depth, quality tech content on a 5 minute segment than you can in an hour long podcast!

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  7. They could move the broadcast hours to 11pm – 4am and do infomercials. At this time adult content wouldn’t be a problem and the current ads are almost infomercials already. Scrap that little content and go ads all the way. Let’s be the “This Week Infomercial Trap” Netcast.

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  8. They should rename it This Week in Quadcopters for fucks sake. What a waste of time – Friar Fat Fuck has ruined what was a great show by Iyaz. And is Bryan asleep on his feet or what? The man has zero energy and a voice to match.

    Put a fork in it. It’s done.

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    1. That is absolutely impossible. Jarvis’s Google love exceeds the physical limitation of the universe. The only thing that comes close is his love of announcing that he went to Davos yet again.

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  9. KNOW HOW WENT TO CRAP WHEN IT WAS ALL ABOUT STUPID QUADCOPTERS. WHO CAN SIT THRU THAT SO MUCH? APPARENTLY, ONLY A COUPLE. THROW THE QUADCOPTERS IN THE TRASH AND DO SOMETHING OF INTEREST & MAYBE YOU CAN GET YOUR VIEWERS BACK, UNLESS IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE. PEOPLE THINK OF KNOW HOW AS THE QUADCOPTER SHOW.

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  10. “An Honest Assessment From the Lips of Jizz”

    Lips of Jizz you pretty much nailed the rise and fall of Twit in your 800plus word assessment above!!!!

    Great writing!!!

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  11. Leo Laporte certainly isn’t the first asshole to have some kind of personal crisis, the thing is he streamed that shit for all to behold and to throw up by. Also, it is evident that he is a phony, a shit boss and cohost and an overall pathetic piece of garbage.

    He does support the sex swing industry however, so he’s got that going for him which is nice.

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