Jason Howell Pays the Price for Leo Laporte’s Chronic Tardiness

Trigger warning: The video above may cause you to actually feel kinda sorry for Jason Howell.

If you ever watch the live stream, you will hear Leo saying he doesn’t care about shows starting on time. He shows near-constant disrespect for even his regular guests. Soup can’t even show up punctually for The Tech Guy on Premiere Networks — his one job where his income is dependent on someone else.

This time, Drew Olanoffcommunity director for TechCrunch — finally put TWiT in its place for disrespecting his time he set aside for an interview by being extremely late. Unfortunately, Jason Howell and viewers of Tech News Today paid the price, not Leo Laporte.

54 thoughts on “Jason Howell Pays the Price for Leo Laporte’s Chronic Tardiness”

  1. ITM and TYFYC Leica Lens!

    It is about time the guests of TWiT’s shows stand up for themselves. It is a shame this happened to Jason, but in the end, he is guilty by being associated by this $hitshow organization.

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    1. Unfortunately, I think we’re long past the point of TWIT guests standing up for themselves, which partially has to do with why the quality of the shows, especially their tent pole TWIT, has declined so much. This just happens to be a very public example.

      They’ve never shied away from the fact that they don’t pay contributors and that they pay weekly hosts a fairly small sum. TWIT’s success was fueled by the good will of others for a long time. I suspect that the truly talented guests, who were initially happy to be a part of something like TWIT, ended up feeling somewhat taken advantage of when they were asked week after week after week to be on one of TWIT’s shows, which meant they’d be giving up their free time to help bring TWIT viewers. There may be reference to it somewhere on this site, but I’ve heard them on the live stream discuss once regular guest’s unwillingness to return, and that they had asked to stop being contacted every single week.

      Anyways, back to the topic at hand, if you need people to do things for you for free, the least you can is respect their time.

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  2. “Click” good one! Hope LL sees what a mess he’s made of the once fun to watch TWit network. Kudos to Olanuff looks like he wasn’t putting up with this disrespecting proples time b.s. Hope more people follow in his footsteps.

    TYFYC

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    1. He will just ban them like he bans everybody that doesn’t worship the mighty God of tech. Because we all know a two bit place like Tech Crunch needs Leo to be visible to the masses. If I had to guess I’d guess that any guest from anything reputable and with a big name either does interviews out of pity or they didn’t pay attention when the email came in and agreed to an interview.

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    1. They can’t. Leo is paying them thousands each week, so he feels the need to passive-aggressively punish them as a narcissist asshole with a big one-incher.

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    2. I used to listen to Thurott and Gibson, but when Leo got too political and full of himself, I turned off.

      Surprised they still put up with his crap.

      Sad. I was an early TwIT listener and was happy for him when his network was growing, but as it grew, so did his ego. When JCD left, I went with him.

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  3. Who was this guy? What show was this? Some details might be useful. And what does this sentence mean: “Soup can’t even show up for his one job where someone else is paying him on time.” ???

    Was this guy paying Leo?

    Funny incident ruined by the piss-poor write up.

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    1. You’re right, that sentence is clunky. The “on time” phrase is technically acceptable where it is, but the sentence is easier to read if it’s moved: “Soup can’t even show up ON TIME for his one job where someone else is paying him.” The “someone else” is Premiere Networks, which pays Leo for waddling in late to do The Tech Guy.

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    2. Queer as a 3 Dollar Bill said:
      Who was this guy? What show was this? Some details might be useful. And what does this sentence mean: “Soup can’t even show up for his one job where someone else is paying him on time.”???

      Was this guy paying Leo?

      Funny incident ruined by the piss-poor write up.

      I’ve updated the article’s phrasing to hopefully make it more clear. I apologize that the phrasing made you feel that the write-up was piss-poor.

      The show name was already in the article, however.

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  4. They have a problem getting guest as it is and then this happens. Why did they put him on skype ? To ad insult, they called him back and he had to tell them personally that he couldn’t do the show because he got tired of waiting while soup was dragging out a 3 hour bore fest that couldn’t end on time.

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    1. I think they already have. TWit rarely has anyone remotely important anymore. This Olanoff character is a second or third tier douchebag and he bailed when he could.

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  5. Love Jason’s befuddled look. He’s clueless, if I was doing a shit job I wouldn’t be so surprised when someone finally called me out on it. Should’ve happened sooner.

    Face it, the only goal at TWiT is to fuel Leo’s lifestyle, no attention is given to the guests, the audience or the quality of the product.

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  6. Leo calls Trump a narcissist all the time but it is Leo Laporte who is the worst kind of narcissist. Not giving a damn about another persons time is very disrespectful. However, to disrespect someones time, who is already doing you a favor by donating his time to be on your show, is the ultimate narcissism.

    I remember thinking, back when I watched and liked TWiT, that not starting on time was cool. But think about what a big FUCK YOU to fans and especially guests it really is.

    The guest DM’ed them saying he can’t make it after the TWiT delay. Then they put him on live camera to try to shame him into doing the interview, no just no. Let us hope more people develop some self-respect and hope Jason speaks up to Leo.

    There is no reason Leo should never start on time. It is not like this is a once in a while occurrence. He totally does not give a shit about other peoples time. I can even understand getting the co-hosts and TDs set up first but it is more than that, they always wait for him to waddle in and get his milk bottle ready.

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  7. Facebook is a LIAR. Just the other day people at facecrook were drawing black lives matter propaganda on the walls and then people crossed out that propaganda on the facecrook walls. Mark *uckerberg sent out an email asking that people not scratch out BLM propaganda. He is an open borders scum, he is a advertising pushing scum, he is a scum that sells our data and metadata, he is a scum that works with despotic governments the world over to suppress free speech, he is a scum that hates anonymous users, he is a banning scum, I have been banned at times from FB for basically not towing the liberal line in comments so I know they are anti-free speech and anti-non-liberal-left, Mark F is a scum that hates liberty and freedom for all. Mark F is a thief and he even said (look this up) that people were Dumb F___ for giving him our information. Mark F takes the best, brightest smartest most motivated people in the world and enslaves to his world view and enslaves them to stealing our data and metadata and putting it up for sale. Mark F and FaceF___ also have people on-board which were from liberal government, example, sheryl sandberg, who could care less about her husband dying and she was gallivanting with billionaires like her just weeks after his death, she worked for Larry Summers and magically appeared in faceCrook very shortly before IPO? what a joke. The whole thing is a con job. Its a branch of government spying and controlling us. The news, from Google, media, and Facebook, is FILTERED news that most people take as the right point of view. Google, Mark and Facebook and Amazon are right now the most evil, vile greedy horrible places in the world where the middle class is used and abused and shrunk, the poor are exploited for data and metadata, and the police state can get tons of information without warrants and where small and medium businesses can be CRUSHED by cheap Chinese-made imitations and free shipping. The whole thing is disgusting to watch.

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    1. Don’t get hung up on this shit; FB users are like lambs to the slaughter. I think you nailed it but not point in getting cross about it, you only live once.

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    1. I’m not defending the guy, but he probably thought they might try to call him in the middle of a live show to trap him into doing the interview that he already said he didn’t have time for.

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    1. That was a good zinger

      I also thought it was interesting that Leo didn’t understand what kind of device they were talking about…its a streaming device like roku, it wasn’t a difficult thing to understand

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  8. “Unfortunately, Jason Howell and viewers of Tech News Today paid the price”

    Anyone who actually watches Tech News Today pays the price every day…

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    1. SpongeBobTrianglePants said:
      Off-topic:

      Leo hated the whooping, cheering and over-the-top chat on Apple’s Beats One radio station, however, each of his “The New Screensavers” begins with whooping, cheering (from a un-shown audience) and over-the-top banter.

      Digidyn said:
      “Unfortunately, Jason Howell and viewers of Tech News Today paid the price”

      Anyone who actually watches Tech News Today pays the price every day…

      Jason is screwed. A mortgage, kids in school and a job and future with a ticket to nowhere.

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  9. Off-topic:

    Leo hated the whooping, cheering and over-the-top chat on Apple’s Beats One radio station, however, each of his “The New Screensavers” begins with whooping, cheering (from a un-shown audience) and over-the-top banter.

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    1. I’m going to defend this story. Not written exactly how I would have written it, but it’s about what this place should cover. To put it plainly, it’s a fuck up. A fuck up that an employee of twit wouldn’t cause. A fuck up that shouldn’t be embraced as how things should be. Making people wait isn’t professional, but more to the point, it’s stupid. You’ll alienate good people and will lose access to them. You’ll hurt your business.

      I like this article because it addresses behavior and isn’t attacking someone’s gender or looks. I want to see more of this.

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  10. So here’s the bit that gets me. We accept that Leo has been phoning it in for years now and really has no concept of time. Fine. But with this particular example, why wouldn’t they have just begun taping Tech News Today at the regular start time?

    The studio has cameras everywhere – granted they only have one TriCaster, but the show could have been recorded on a set wide shot getting the desk and monitor. When whatever live show Leo was doing finally ended, they could have switched back to TNT if there was anything left. Once TNT is over, they’d simply need to edit in the intro/extro sequence and sponsor lower thirds. The show could then be re-aired in its entirety whenever an opening in scheduling appeared.

    TWiT has been quite open over the years that very few watch live, most just download the audio version to listen as they carry about their lives. Given that TV/radio have operated this way for decades, and Leo claims to have knowledge in broadcasting, it seems ridiculous to expect your low/unpaid guests to wait around past the scheduled start time.

    I have no idea who this guy was, but he clearly had something else to do that day. Calling him 36 minutes after the scheduled start time to let him know that we’re still not starting yet, but would you mind hanging around for another 30min, is very amateur hour.

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    1. The ceHOE built a studio that can only shoot one show at a time because of sound bleeding. There is no soundproofing so even the editors have to whisper when they film on other sets.

      They do have cameras in a back studio but it has no skype connection.

      Now the former news director had a studio with Skype in his office but what the fuck happened to his office after he was canned is secret.

      I would guess his studio became the HQ for the highly successful Art is Anal LLC, did you know they signed a science guy who makes YiuTube videos?

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      1. With very little extra expense, they could have the ability to fully switch a second show. A sound proof wall down the middle, a second tricaster plunged into their matrix switcher. And you would benefit from redundant tricasters should one fail.

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  11. Leo doesn’t care about guests any more than he cares about his employee’s.

    The guests he has on TWiT has been pathetic. Was it last week that he even mentioned that he had tried to get JCD onto TWiT but he was busy.

    To say he had invited JCD on after making the comments he made about JCD not being Tech Focus (sic) is an insult to John.

    I’ve found it harder and harder to watch the obnoxious diabeetus addled asshole. If I am not busy I may watch the first few minutes just to see who the guests are and if they interest me then I’ll watch but it’s just damn hard work getting through his shows these days and most of his guests are people that seem to have agreed to be guests because it’s something to do to fill time and their input is mostly agreeing with fat boy.

    If I see old flimsy girl any more often I’ll puke, she is nauseating at the best of times but at least she washes her hair instead of covering it in a lice infested hat.

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    1. Ferdinand Legrand said:
      ….Was it last week that he even mentioned that he had tried to get JCD onto TWiT….

      JCD won’t be on again. He has not been on in a year and the No Agenda Show numbers have not suffered. He was the only guest they paid but he will do without the 7K a year.

      Ferdinand Legrand said:
      ….I may watch the first few minutes just to see who the guests are and if they interest me then I’ll watch but it’s just damn hard work getting through his shows these days and most of his guests…..

      Your listening habits are consistent with 90% of Leo’s audience. Many former fans remain subscribed and may listen to 5 minutes of an occasional show for months or years before eventually deleting the feed. But the hesitation in deleting feeds is why #soup is still in business. Deletion only occurs if you tune into other podcasts and TWiT shows are in the way, or if you care about the storage on your phone. Until deleting the subscription, you still count in ratings.

      This is why twit numbers are only down 20% from peak and only slowly dwindling (while other networks grow.) This 20% drop is consistent with the actual ‘60% drop in listened to downloads.’
      The real problem and red flag for TWiT is the offer codes. TWiT used to shine with enthusiastic fans using offer codes. This has caused the rate charged for ads and the amount of spots advertisers buy to drop.

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      1. Now that’s it’s mattresses and clothing who the hell would buy this crap – even with an offer code.

        Ministry of Supply is selling 140 dollar short. Give me a bleeding break.

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        1. And I can confirm from the 6 useless engraved pieces of aluminium crap on my desk that The Trackr is also a pile of shit. In one of the ads, sadly after my purchase, the location of Leo’s Trackr was shown as “Home” yet it was in his hand at “Work”… he very quickly said something like, “ohhh that must be my other one at home”. They are a truly awful and connectivity is so sketchy it’s like calling a potato a tube of Pringles.

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  12. Blame Art Is Anal! The products and advertisers no longer have any value to the TWIT audience. Remember when soup would turn down advertisers because he cared about his audience over the money and high priced vacations, Tesla’s and Cruise ships? Now he advertises anything including pill pack. Whatever that is.

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  13. After much thought (five minutes), I really believe Leo &Lisa deserve each other and Jeniffer came out with a pile of cash and no longer tied to the creep Leo has always been. It was one of Lisa’s goals to untie Leo from the Dailey grind of podcasting, but as with all her other tasks as CoHoe of TWiT, failed, and Leo is stuck with on air duties which clearly he has no interest in!!! Leo is almost sixty and no retirement date in sight. Gum is even off to Mexico, no more Skype’d guest appearance’s. BTW, Gum’s last column concerning dead heading cell signals was a huge pile of crap. He’s trolling for clicks with non-issues that only the NSA would find amusing.

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