The television network G4 helped bolster video game culture's place in the mainstream when it launched soon after the turn of the century. While it shut down in 2014, the impact it left on many fans is undeniable - so much so that the announcement of a revival drummed up plenty of excitement in 2020. G4 has begun airing online content, with old hosts returning alongside new talent. In June, it was announced YouTubers Jirard Khalil, known as "The Completionist," and Gina Darling were picked up as G4 hosts.

Game Rant spoke to Khalil and Darling about the process behind joining G4, building a new family, and their aspirations for the revival. Interview has been edited for clarity.

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Q: What were you guys up to just before our conversation?

Khalil: We have our weekly G4 Thursday stream, where we get together and celebrate current topics in the gaming industry, TikTok/YouTube challenge trends, just kind of a smorgasbord of everything pop culture. Today we celebrated Sonic's 30th birthday, and we talked about UFOs. We went over some funny TikToks and videos from Reddit and such, and overall had a good time.

Darling: We basically did what G4 does best: Give you video game information and also make you question what is going on, but laugh at the same time.

Q: That's a good segue. How do you both feel G4 has evolved for this new era of entertainment?

Darling: We're able to incorporate what is modern, whether it be video games or trends on every platform; YouTube, TikTok, Twitter. They've done an incredible job of incorporating all of it and moving it into modern times.

Khalil: I think G4 kind of set the standard, right? Before there was YouTube there was G4 in this bubble where people were excited about gaming culture and pop culture. Now people don't know what G4 is and didn't experience it because they were too young or didn't have cable. I think this version of G4, not only is it more modernized, but it's available for everyone to enjoy it. There's not really an age, race, or gender gap.

I think we're moving toward a more modern style. G4 was the godfather that established a lot of content creation, so it's like art imitating life and vice versa, where we have to find a balance between the roots of G4, what G4 looks like in 2021 and beyond, and where content creation trends are that shape the overall space.

Darling: This time around we get to really incorporate viewers and fans and engage with them, have them help us make it even more fun.

Khalil: Yeah there's a feedback loop. G4 took off in the Nielsen era of ratings where you knew what your numbers are, and that's been television for a long time. But we're in a current day where there's a G4 Discord, we have G4 social media, a Reddit, and all these different areas that allow us to get direct feedback from people who grew up with G4, who don't know what G4 is, who are learning about G4. We're taking a lot of the criticisms and positivity as close as we can to the chest because we're learning this as we're building.

Q: What are both of your histories with G4 in its original incarnation and its revival?

Darling: G4 was something I watched every day after school, way back when I was a wee lass. It was something that was so important, because I was the only gamer in the house and I was one of the few girls who played games at school. Watching G4 made me feel like I was at home, these were people talking about things I care about, things I love so much. Then watching Morgan Webb up there it was like, "Whoa there's another girl that loves video games, it's okay for me to be me." G4 plays a really big part in my life and where I am now.

I feel like that's what I want G4 to be now too, what I would love to be a part of. To make people feel like they belong.

Khalil: I think Gina and the other female talent have the ability to, I don't think revolutionize being women in the gaming space, but really show how far we've come. Former hosts of G4 paved the way so the rest of us could run, walk, and sprint at the same time. I think it's so important to have people like Gina with her creativity on TikTok and beyond, and her passion in gaming. We need a lot of that not only for the exclusivity part of G4, but just in general.

When we say "gamers," everyone always has the stereotype of guys who look like me, overweight, in the basement with their headphones on locked away. That stereotype is no longer a thing, and I think it's important that that's true for what G4 is.

I just kind of spoke for you, I'm sorry.

Darling: No, no, I love it! Now I want to hear your thing with G4.

Khalil: I was a massive gamer growing up, I was working at Best Buy full-time in the video game department for five years. I was passionately driven by selling video games, not because I got commissions but because I liked talking about it. I didn't have the money to afford G4, but because of Best Buy's deals with satellite networks we got free cable in the breakroom. G4 was on there 24/7, so I watched a lot of X-Play, Attack of the Show, Ninja Warrior... A lot of shows that revitalized my passion for gaming and really shaped how I spoke about games and sold games.

It was like my validation for being so passionate about gaming in a television network that was really inspiring. Even when I started my YouTube channel, I never forgot about that. It was a key component to how I designed my show and presented myself online. It's not like, "What would Adam Sessler do," it was this essence that G4 means this to so many people, so how can I be G4? How can I be the next iteration of that?

For me, it's incredibly full-circle with my career to be here. Hopefully ten, 15, 20 years from now we're inspiring the next generation of people who want to take the helm of G4 and beyond.

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Q: How long was the process of joining G4 prior to your announcements, and what was it like to have to wait to say anything?

Darling: Not quite sure how long the process was, but I remember waiting, wondering if it was going to work out. In fact, I remember mentioning that if I ever get this, 12-year-old me was going to start crying. This is basically a dream come true. I tweeted this on my alternate Twitter account that I can't believe I'm living my dream right now.

It was exciting, almost unbelievable and surreal. To see the announcement go up... It's hard to explain what it feels like, but I'd have to say this is probably what it's like to go to Disneyland for the first time.

Khalil: I don't want this to get so personal, but I think for me it felt like I was going on a first date over and over again. It truly felt like every time I got an email from the team to do this or that I was like, "I'm good enough I swear. I got this, I can do this." There was definitely a grieving process for a bit where I felt like I didn't get a callback or email, and at one point I think I said I was going to give up on this, focus on the YouTube stuff, and not worry about it.

Then I got a surgery done, I had some tumors to remove from my body, and I got out of the surgery room at midnight, all drugged up. I looked at my phone and see there's like 32 missed phone calls from my brother, my agent, and my girlfriend, everyone's freaking out. I'm hopped up on all these drugs like, "Am I dead? Did I not make it? Am I cancelled? What is this?" But [G4] just wanted to talk, they wanted to take this to the next step.

I just remember that euphoric feeling of all the hard work over the last ten years coming to fruition. It really is that Disneyland feeling. The thing about G4 is this new iteration really feels like a family. We keep joking it's the G4 family at the G4 beach house, but everyone comes from such different backgrounds with such different expertise that there isn't a lot of ego or combativeness. It truly is a respect and trust and love every time we're together. During my first week, I had to blend, and it seemed like everyone had such chemistry that I was behind - but after that first day it felt like a Tetris piece aligning. It's been like that for the last few weeks as we've been working our way to being introduced to the public.

Darling: It's really funny because I was in the same boat. I said I was going to give up because I hadn't heard from them in a month. In fact, the night I found out I had just told my friends I was going to move to Vegas and stream out there. Then I get the email and scream. I was on vacation in the snow and I swear I almost started an avalanche.

I feel like they time it at the strangest times, right?

Khalil: Yeah it was definitely a will-they-won't-they situation throughout the whole process.

Darling: What Jirard was saying is we get along so well, we all come from such different backgrounds, that when I met everyone I was so stoked. When I first met Jirard I was like, "Jirard tell me everything about you." I'm learning from each person and everyone's so different. G4 has done such a good job picking the right people, and it does feel like a family. Whenever we get together it just feels like this fun party hang-out, it's like a treat every week.

Khalil: We've actually been spending time together outside of work, which has been really wonderful for us. I didn't know anyone going into G4 except for Kassem Gharaibeh and Austin Creed, who's a good friend of mine. Going into G4, Kassem has been like our father, bringing us together, inviting us over to play ping-pong and eat sushi. That stuff has been so fun because it's not like a corporate-mandated thing. It's a genuine interest of bringing us all together, because if we are going to be the Avengers that bring back this gaming network, let's get to know each other.

That's been such a freeing experience because, I can't speak for Gina, but after doing this for ten years you run into a lot of intense people with a lot of clashing personalities. None of that is here in G4. The catchphrase we're going for here is that G4 is for gamers, by gamers, but I don't think people realize how true that is. The production crew, the writers, the people who created these shows years ago are all still plugged into the culture.

If someone gets a PS5, the whole office stops and we celebrate because we can't get a PS5, but that's a win for someone in the office.

Darling: Or we plot to steal it.

Khalil: Yeah, the competition for who can steal it first. But it definitely feels like family, as cheesy as it sounds.

Q: I'm sure having those events where you can get together is especially nice after the last year being locked away.

Darling: Yeah, this is a fun way to introduce us back into society.

Khalil: Nothing like being in each other's faces and eating gross challenges to unite all of us.

Q: Did you apply for this role? Or did G4 reach out to people?

Khalil: I can't speak for Gina, but I was reached out to. Full disclosure, most creators in the space have some kind of representation via agency or management companies, so either they reached out to me or my agent offered one of their many talents in the pool. At least the minute the conversation started, it never stopped in terms of talking to me, getting to know me, seeing if I fit.

Darling: I was reached out to by representation also. I remember getting that email like this is a scam, there's no way. But I responded and here we are.

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Q: You've talked about this being like a family, but were there people you were excited to meet? Either from the older programming or the revival?

Darling: Let me tell you something, Jason. The first thing they had me do was a stream with Sessler and I had to keep a bucket next to me because I was going to throw up from nervousness and excitement. Like that's the first thing you're getting me to do? Hang out with Sessler?

I was getting text messages from my cousins and whoever I grew up with like "we just got the news, are you going to work with Sessler?" And I was like, "I'm with him right now!" We have Sessler, Kevin Pereira, who have been so amazing to work with. They welcomed us in with open arms and answered any questions, they've been so kind.

Khalil: Kevin and Sessler, not only are they G4 legends, but they're legends outside of G4. Kevin stuck with the Attack brand, Sessler moved on to Rev3 and beyond. Those guys paved the way for people, and they don't remember this but there were definitely moments where I met them before who I was to ask for photos and autographs.

There was even a convention where Sessler and I were both guests. Sessler felt bad about it, because I told him this story where he had just spent six hours doing autographs, he was so tired. I had done the same thing. But I got into the elevator, just he and I sitting there, and we both look at each other. Sessler had a moment where he was like, "This guy gets it," and I had a moment of, "Holy s*** it's Adam Sessler."

I was immediately like, "Great work today buddy," and he was like, "Yep." That was the end of our interaction, I never thought about Sessler ever again because I thought he would remember it. I have avoided him at all costs because I embarrassed myself, and when I told that story during my first interview with him his first response was, "Oh my god, did I say anything wrong?"

It's surreal being around the two of them. Like what Gina said, there's this air that they're just here to see G4 succeed. They've been so welcoming. During one of our weeks training together I wasn't in the office, and Kevin sent me an email like, "We're going to Round One, do you want to come?" I got an email from him. He didn't have my email. He had to ask around and make sure I was welcomed. Even when we got here today, Sessler walked up and hugged me to ask how I was doing.

We don't really know them. I feel like this goes to show their character, passion, and care for what G4 can be. I think they're just excited to see that not only are they back at the helm, but there's people to support them as well.

Darling: I would fight people for those two.

Khalil: Yeah. The Internet is the Internet, and they have their presumptions and stories and TwitLongers and receipts and stuff, but I think we see such a personal side of them that we know they're good people who are accepting to all.

Q: As fans of the older program are there shows or kinds of content you're excited to be a part of? Any new content you're excited to helm?

Khalil: The biggest shows coming back are obviously Attack of the Show and X-Play.

Darling: Ninja Warrior. We have a D&D thing going on.

Khalil: Yeah, there's a short-term D&D series happening. Then from there, one of the most exciting things about this new version of G4 is there's this vibe of being like, "Now that you're all here, what show do you want to pitch?" Kassem did a segment on UFOs for the stream today. Knowing Kassem, he just really loves UFOs and wanted to speak from the heart about his passion to Gina and Kevin today. Everyone's like, "What? Why?" Because that's what Kassem cares about.

Darling: There are so many times they'd pull us aside to ask what we care about, what do we want to do, and they really want to get to know us and understand what we want to create something out of that.

Khalil: It's a balancing act. You have a lot of OG fans who, when they hear Sessler say, "This game gets a 5/5," it's like opening a Coke and drinking it. That crisp, nostalgic feel you'd have after a long day at work. People love that, they want to see Kevin do his Attack thing with hot sauce challenges and crazy things of that nature.

We want to be a part of that history, we want to come in and support Kevin and Sessler for what they want to do with X-Play and Attack of the Show, do what producers expect of us. At the same time, we also realize those shows aged great, but there's a new style of Internet that exists - a new essence of what people expect from an Internet or TV show. We're trying to see where we can help out.

It's a dumb thing, and nobody told me to do this, I've been watching a lot of old X-Play stuff. Watching Morgan Webb do her thing, watching Sessler do his thing. There's a certain dynamic to the two of them, and I can't replace anyone from the previous X-Play crew...

Darling: But we want to make them proud.

Khalil: We want to make them proud! We want to make them feel like X-Play hasn't gone away, that it's evolved in a way where they still get that classic Coke feel, but also are accepting and willing to see the ideas we're trying to aim for. It's definitely a balancing act of how we get the old and new generations. That's where the G4 Discord, Reddit, and Twitter community stuff comes into play.

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Darling: We're extremely community-driven now. We're hearing everyone, we're taking good and critical comments and trying to form something everyone can be proud of - without forgetting where we came from.

Q: Are there any personal bits you both might want to bring in, similar to Kassem's UFO thing?

Darling: I feel like you and I are so opposite.

Khalil: Yeah, we've on very opposite sides.

Darling: For me, I'm full chaos. I'm here to test the very limits of G4 with challenges and skits. How far, and how crazy can I go? Will they send me out in the field and let me run loose? I consider myself a top-tier random weapon in Borderlands. Nobody knows what the flavor text means, but you throw me in a general direction and let me go off.

I'm here to incorporate the outlandishness of G4 and make people wonder what's going on.

Khalil: That's definitely what happens every Thursday. But I think it's justified by people who feel it was a lot of fun.

Darling: On the other hand, Jirard is just a giant rock of information. I listen to him speak and am in awe of what he does. Like you've been doing what for how long? That's amazing.

Khalil: I think my goal - and it's not a political statement, even though I almost made a joke about it just now - is I want G4 to be about games again. It's not that G4 wasn't about games, but I think G4 validated gamers for so many people who felt like there wasn't a place on a professional scale.

With Geoff Keighley and The Game Awards, that all stemmed from G4, Spike TV, that era of giving games a serious platform. Since I've been here, my brain's been firing on all cylinders. Out of our group so far, besides maybe Goldenboy, there's nobody who's 1,000 percent driven by hardcore gaming in this way. My hope is to infuse as much gaming culture and be as grounded and respected as possible.

There's this element that gaming is a massive $110 billion industry everyone wants a piece of the pie of, and I'm here to say it's not about the money. It's about the games and stories these developers tell, their trials and tribulations and personal histories that created these wonderful experiences that not a lot of people are talking about.

I think that's why the YouTube space was where I thrived. I entered this realm where there's not really video essays, beautiful pieces of art that highlight the failures and successes of developers, and the industry established because of them. My goal is to come in here and give as much back to the hardcore gaming community as I can.

Darling: Jirard is the person to do it.

Khalil: Thank you.

Q: On the subject of Jirard's titanic work, how much time will you both be devoting to G4, and how will that affect your content on other platforms?

Darling: Oh, Jason. I live here now. They don't know it, but I live here now.

Khalil: There's a closet with Gina's name on it in the corner that used to be where the broom was, but it's turning into a pretty cool place.

Darling: Yeah, I put some lights in there finally.

Khalil: Little LED lights in there, a beautiful PC in the corner.

As you know Jason I'm completing a game a week every week, that's the promise I've done for the past 10 years. That promise is being scaled back a little bit in honor of being brought onto G4 in a full-time capacity.

When I was asked to be brought in, they were kind of looking for part-time correspondent work. I said I'd love to do that, but I go all-in and I was chomping at the bit to see if there's room for me to really throw myself into this, contribute, and push forward with the brand. They came back and said we didn't know you wanted to be all-in, but now you're all-in.

I'm never going to walk away from my awesome supporters online or disappear from YouTube, Twitch, or the communities I've established. I'll never stop raising money for great causes to help wonderful people. But my ten-year journey has been one filled with personal triumphs and failures that I've learned so much from. I don't know that I want to be doing the YouTube content creation thing forever, and G4 seems like not only an opportunity to evolve myself, but also to validate the hard work I've put in. When it's all said and done, wherever G4 is and wherever I end up, I think I can said this was the beginning, all of my being and who I was. If I get hit in the face with a pie every day on G4 for the next two-to-four years, then that's it. I'm happy to do that, to accept that responsibility knowing it contributed to something greater than myself.

Darling: I come from 11 years of YouTube streaming and hosting. I was streaming almost every day for the past two or three years or so, and I will be pulling back from that a little for G4. But like Jirard, I'm never going to leave that space. These are followers and supporters I've had for 11 years or so, and what I tell them is, "Hey, our family is moving from our quaint town to this huge city that is G4, but I want you to know that I'm never going to leave." These are the people who have been there since day one and I want to make them proud.

I'll be streaming on weekends now instead of almost six days a week, and I want to hold onto that community as much as I possibly can.

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Khalil: One thing I can say is, the content creation space for people on the outside looking in is this massive world of sponsorships and incredible opportunities to live like a rock star. You look at the top one percent of the YouTube gaming space, let alone the general YouTuber space, and you see people buying Teslas, expensive mansions, and things like that. That's not me, it's never been me, and it never will be me. But that doesn't mean I don't want to work hard to provide for my family and make them proud.

We're seasoned veterans in this way, with ten-to-11 years of doing this. We know how our finances work and the limitations of our bodies, and what's expected of us. I think the best thing about working with G4 is we get to create things our audience doesn't know about. If I say I want to create a show about a certain thing, G4 will at least say we want to hear it. How do we make that? Are you passionate about it?

If it were just me on YouTube I'd have to go, "Alright I'm going to make a Kickstarter, find some people to help me make this thing," or just do it yourself and hope it works out. The stability of working with G4, not just from a financial perspective but a community perspective, is so important.

Darling: G4 has always been supportive of our individual passions. I can't tell you how many times they told me I could do things part-time to still stream, they hear out everyone. I said nah, I want to do it full time, but either way they're so supportive. They don't force us to do this, this, and this so many times. They want us to do what makes us happy too.

Khalil: The most gratifying thing in the last few weeks has been the questions asked of us. If someone comes in and says they want to write a sketch or pitch a segment, they'll ask what we think of it. Most of the time when I'm brought into a room like that it would be, "Here's this thing, go perform." G4 is a lot more collaborative. It's so much more Q&A, trial-and-error than people realize.

That, to me, is the most exciting because it means they care so much more, which makes me care even more.

Q: On the subject of charity and giving back, last time we talked Jirard it was about Preserved Play-

Khalil: Which raised $114 grand by the way. Holy crap, right?

Q: Congratulations on that! I know Gina does charitable drives as well. How do you feel the extra platform will help with those endeavors?

Darling: I'm proud to be a part of G4 because I know it will open many more doors for us as creators to be able to help more people. I feel like when people hear G4 wants to be a part of something, it's an automatic yes.

When it comes to charity and charity streams, we've always had to set it up ourselves. We reach out to the organizations and say this is what we're going to do. But if I can just go to G4 and say I want to raise money for this, they'll take care of everything. We just show up, entertain, and raise money. I'm very excited about that. In fact, we're doing a charity stream this Sunday, June 27.

Khalil: For me personally, I've had a lot of companies I wanted to work with just never respond or say we're not big enough to work with. Having the support of G4 changed a lot of those conversations. Suddenly, that conversation went from 0 to 60. While it is s***ty that it took me joining G4 to pave the way...

Darling: It's open.

Khalil: It's open, and it's helping. For instance, Pride month is huge here. To know there are so many individuals here who will have our backs before we ask anything is unparalleled. Gina knows it, I know it. G4, from the minute I started talking to them, has done what it says it does.

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it is to have that confidence, because I'm the guy who has the confidence and will carry it, but to have a team who's like "yes, and give us the other side of the table to carry with you," that means so much.

Darling: One of my goals is to be able to provide gaming consoles and PCs to children's hospitals across the world.

Khalil: I'd love to personally do more tragedy relief drives. I'm of Lebanese descent, and there was the tragic Beirut bombing last year. I felt kind of helpless, like I couldn't help my family. While I raised money for them on my end, I'd love to be more involved and help with tragedies, whatever it is. People are suffering all over the world, and I'm just a fat guy with a beard. If I can do that, we can do anything.

Darling: For me personally, the joy of video games itself. As a child, I grew up in a hard family and I was able to transport myself to be any character, to be whoever I want, fly through the sky. If it did that for me, I want to do that for children who are going through hardships we can never imagine. If I can provide even five minutes of relief and joy, I want to be able to do that.

Q: Mentioning Pride month and tragedy relief, are there any big events focused on these kinds of issues coming up? Possibly around the recent surge of violence against Asian Americans?

Darling: It has been really hard for the AAPI community over the last few months especially, and that is something I've been working behind the scenes on with some people. Even something as simple as raising money to help walk our elderly as they're going grocery shopping, or drawing more awareness, absolutely. I really do want to be a part of that.

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I want to be able to help our community, and of course other communities too.

Khalil: Currently, as it stands I don't think we have anything planned, or at least me personally, until my charity event IndieLand in September where we're doing Alzheimer's and dementia research and prevention.

Darling: Oh, I want in on that.

Khalil: I'm definitely going to bug you guys for sure. But I think in terms of what Gina and I would like to do, we don't have any plans yet. Again, this is just the beginning. As we grow and get more talent, more people in here, you're going to see a lot of events where we're doing crazy stuff to get a lot of money, giving it 110 percent.

Darling: I waxed my nose hair once for charity, so the limit is very blurry here.

Khalil: Jamie Lee Curtis lovingly looked into my eyes and said, "I'm sorry," and tore all the hair off of my arm. It was incredible, a great experience to say the least. Raised a lot of money for charity, that's how it works.

Q: Do you know how big the G4 family is aiming to be?

Khalil: Honestly, the phrase I keep hearing is we're building the ship as we fly it. That's never been more true, and it sounds chaotic - which it is, but it's kind of comforting knowing we don't know how big the family's going to get. It doesn't really matter, it feels like the more the merrier.

This is a dumb analogy, feel free to make fun of me on this quote. We're all kind of like a pizza: Each of us are our own slice with a different topping or flavor.

Darling: Never pineapple.

Khalil: Not for Gina at least.

Darling: No. Don't even put me next to the pineapple piece. We'll fight.

Khalil: But we're slowly filling out this pie if you will, and I'm excited to see how big it gets and how diverse it can become. We all just want to see this thing kick ass and work.

Darling: I know we're going to look back at this when we are finally strong and the ship is flying on its own and reminisce about how we were there at the beginning. That's one of the beautiful parts of being here so early on.

Q: Jirard, you just went through surgery and have to balance G4, your show, your charity event, and so on. How do you feel you'll be able to balance all of it with your health?

Khalil: I've always been the kind of person that loves to add too much to the plate. Maybe it's a Khalil family thing where I come from an immigrant background: my father had $20 and came to the States with nothing, but said he was coming to become an American and take over the world and have a family. I'm the youngest of five kids and all of us are entrepreneurs and leaders in our own fields.

I definitely have a problem with never saying no. I will always take on more than I can. But I would rather be taking on too much than to take on nothing at all. Maybe this is the gamer in me, but I'm very task-oriented, I love to tackle things that seem impossible. Every public business decision, everything I've done on YouTube, if you looked at me from ten years ago to today you'd see that I've punched a lot of brick walls that should not have fallen, but have.

I think because G4 is such a huge part of my story and identity that when this opportunity came it wasn't just a wall, it was a building. I'm gunna tear it down - and not in a way like I'm going to take apart G4, but...

Q: No, G4 is over. You're here now.

Khalil: Bye guys, get rid of the studio.

But really, I think I'm not afraid to commit myself. Everyone always asks me how I do what I do, and literally my fuel is passion. I love video games, I love films, I love comics. I love talking about it, meeting people who have specialties in things I have no idea about, because I love learning about it. I think that passion really is the balance to all of it. I really want to inspire people to do it. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

I don't know anyone in the YouTube space who has been Lebanese in the way I've been, who has been through so much personal tragedy and has been where I've been. For me, it just feels like I have to keep pushing to define new boundaries. G4 is that next chapter of my life, going we're going to make some cool stuff and tear down walls to make something special - just like how it was back in the day when G4 was special to me. If G4 gave me this, the least I can do is give back to G4.

Q: What has the reaction been to your announcement for joining G4, and is there anything you want to say to people who have supported you?

Darling: The whole announcing process was so fun. G4 sat me down and said, "How do you want to do this?" They wanted to do it in the most organic way possible, that represented us as who we are.

For the last 11 years, the one thing people always ask me is if I'm dating anyone, because I've always kept it a secret. So I told G4, "Let's pretend I have a boyfriend and tease it for a week before my announcement." I was posting pictures of this faceless guy, we were holding hands and going on dates. Everyone was losing their minds, trying to figure out who it was. They were comparing hairlines of the guy in the photo to another actor.

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Then I had G4 make a video, because I wanted the final announcement to be explosions and American eagles, Sunday night monster trucks. They did it and it's by far one of my proudest and most fun announcements. My community was so incredibly supportive, but was also like, "Screw you, you tricked us! We love you, and congratulations, but don't do it again."

My community has been so supportive. I haven't streamed in a month because I've been working on this, but they're still there in my Discord telling me I did great on the G4 stream. I think that's one of my favorite things to hear, it makes my heart so happy to hear my supporters say, "We're so proud of you."

Khalil: I had the exact same experience. We were having our prep meeting to announce me for G4, and before the producer could even get a word out I was like, "I have an idea." I pitched the idea and it was silence. It was one of those things where I felt like Marty McFly from Back to the Future, you don't know what this is but your kids are going to love it.

I knew being a Nintendo influencer with a background and passion for Super Smash Bros. that I had to make this thing larger than life. If Xavier Woods was not in G4 I would have made my announcement video like I was joining a wrestling organization, over-the-top sell it because that's the theatrics that makes wrestling so wonderful. I thought, "What's my version of that?" Smash Bros. Everyone knows me as a Nintendo guy, I worked with Nintendo in so many official capacities, and I love that company and what they've done for my career.

I made this homage to Terry Bogard's announcement for Smash, and it was so fun because I couldn't tell any of the creators in that video why they were doing what they were doing. I had to lie to some of my closest friends and say I need you to film a video for seven seconds trying to grab something.

The morning of, maybe an hour before the stream where I showed the video, I sent all of them a photo and let them know what they were a part of. I also apologized for tricking them, and said if they didn't want to be in the video I'd edit it. Every single person was like, "Oh my god, I'm so happy for you, I'm so proud to be a part of this historic moment." I started bawling, that whole day I was crying. You really have no idea who's in your corner in this space, and to have everyone go "I'm a part of history now," to ask WWE superstar Adam "Chugs" Cole be a part of my announcement video and have him be like, "Are you kidding me? I would love to."

It just goes to show that I'm surrounded by so many cool people who love and support me. Announcing it wasn't just me being a part of G4, it was here are the friends I've made along the way. These are the people supporting me. To be in that moment was so special.

Darling: I had the same thing with my friends too. They hit me up like, "Who are you dating? Who is this?" I had to lie and tell them they'd find out, and they were excited like "you haven't dated anyone in so long."

Funny thing is, as a creator there are certain people who would not be happy about the announcement. When I teased that I was dating someone, I actually lost some followers. "You have a boyfriend? We don't care anymore." But we're good now, I gained them all back.

Khalil: The thing I was concerned about is that no matter what capacity, you'll have people who don't like you. For me, I've had so much online baggage unfortunately follow me over the years, and you know all about that Jason. My biggest fear was this new career opportunity would lead to all these people taking a pitchfork to Kehnee, our social media guy.

But 99.99 percent of people who watched our announcement videos were so supportive, passionate, and caring. I think the most common through line was "please tell us you aren't going away," and "I'm so happy, so proud of you." To tell those people thank you for your support and I'm not going anywhere was a very proud moment for me.

Darling: If I could say anything to them, I'd tell them I'm not going anywhere, I'm still going to be a big idiot on the Internet that you love so much. I'm still going to harass everyone at four in the morning on Discord with a terrible pun.

The thing with Jirard is, when I first met him I had seen his announcement and I told him, "The support for you is insane." I was trying to learn about everyone I was working with, and when I googled him I saw he has a subreddit, and all the comments were: Nobody deserves it more than Jirard. The support for all of these creators who have been announces has been overwhelming, it has been a really beautiful experience.

Khalil: It's been surreal. I think it's been even more surreal within the G4 family, we join the company Slack and 80 people we don't know are like, "YOOO, WELCOME." Then we go to the production team and they're like, "You're here!" Like I don't know any of you but I better start writing down your names, because it was a lot.

It felt like that Thor gif where he's like, "Yes!" in that celebratory vibe. If that doesn't give you the chills, nothing else will.

Darling: I can genuinely say there have been friends and family who have asked me how I've been, how G4 has been treating me, and the first two words that come out of my mouth from my heart are, "I'm happy."

[END]

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