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Comment by the_unknown | Hacker News Reader

On a related note - it turns out that he's been running the New Screen Savers show for a while now - didn't even know about it. Happy memories watching the original show - I'll have to give this a try.

Oh, and some of the old team pop in Kate Botello, Patrick Norton, etc.

So there's one benefit to suing Twitter - it gets your name in the media again and all of us old timers can reminisce and catch up on the new series.

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I watched the first ~30 episodes and honestly tried to love it, but I couldn't do it. These days I find Leo so insufferable and conceited that not even my nostalgia for TSS can save the new show.

If they spread the role of hosting around more like they did back in the day I would love it. But most episodes didn't feel like TSS, they felt like The Leo Show with Leo Laporte starring Leo Laporte.

What we liked about The Screen Savers and ZDTV/TechTV in general was that it was the first time somebody was actually talking to a wide audience about the computers, the web, and gadgets. It was ice water in a desert.

Now, there is no premium on tech content. One no longer needs to seek out Leo Laporte to hear what’s going on in tech or roundtable discussions about it.

I find Leo seems to come and go with being annoying. You can tell when he's stressed or something in the background becomes he gets really awful. I kind of wonder if it would be better if he were in front of the camera a bit less in an overall sense for the network.

It also highlights what a one-man-band is TWiT: It depends heavily on Leo Laporte being a first tier broadcast media professional. Because Leo can't or won't hire a second person of his skill level as a radio voice, if there is anyone like him available at any price, TWiT doesn't scale.

Moreover, most people are increasingly used to internet-first voices in the media they consume. You don't need to be able to hold forth for hours without an "uh" or a misplaced breath to have a hugely popular and highly remunerative show. And, on top of that, while podcasts are thriving, video is thriving even more. "Video natives" are the best paid people you've never heard of. TWiT is in danger of becoming a relic.

He hired Tom Merritt to do a daily tech news podcast a while ago and he did a fantastic job, but Laporte didn't renew his contract after Merritt moved because he wanted someone in-studio.

I've stopped listening to TWiT network shows since. Not out of resentment, but because I just got tired of Leo.

I used to listen to TWiT within the first few year. It just sounded like a few people chatting about something they were interested in, and that was really compelling compared to the dullness of television. But it has become much more like an old fashioned TV station which I just don't like. And the network is not really needed when people can promote themselves on Youtube and other social media.

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