That Guy With The Glasses - History

History

Doug Walker's first appearance on the web was on the video website YouTube, in which he created satirical video reviews of films and other media entertainment of the past and present. Initially, Walker viewed making the videos as a side hobby, rarely interacting with his fans and did not even reveal his real name until a video responding to the Northern Illinois University shooting. The series drew complaints from major studios like 20th Century Fox and Lionsgate over alleged copyright infringement. This led to his video content being taken off the website. Walker attempted to re-upload his content by assigning each video a new, separate channel so that if one were deleted, the others would be left intact. However, due to continuing issues with YouTube, Walker decided to leave the website altogether and create the website That Guy with the Glasses with webmaster Mike Michaud. Michaud had created the sites' parent company, Channel Awesome, after he and two others were laid off from Circuit City in 2007. Michaud has stated, "If we didn't lose our jobs, wouldn't have happened anytime soon."

The site was re-launched in April 2008, and all of Walker's future videos would only be posted there. The site later exploded featuring content from various other contributors. In December 2008, Walker appeared in a commercial for the PBS documentary Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, performing a series of brief imitations of famous comedians, from Charlie Chaplin to Stephen Colbert. In 2009, Doug and Rob Walker and Brian Heinz produced an iRiff of The Lion King for RiffTrax. In March 2009, the iRiff was chosen as the winner of the website's RiffTrax Presents contest. The performers received $1,000 and, with instruction from Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, recorded a commentary for the film Batman Forever.

The Nostalgia Critic shows average 100,000 to 300,000 viewers per week, and the site as a whole receives 1 million page views per month. This is expected to increase following content-provider Blip.tv's deal with YouTube in July 2009. As of July 2009, the site earns more than $10,000 per month in advertising revenue and has received more than $11,000 in online donations, with the company expecting to earn $150,000 by the end of the year. In the third quarter of the 2009 Fiscal year, Walker's shows earned $53,000, including $32,000 from the Nostalgia Critic alone. This revenue was generated by run of network from Puma and Starburst. The success of his shows has allowed Walker to make a living performing and to quit his previous job as an illustrator, as well as pay the salary of co-founder/COO Mike Ellis.

Channel Awesome has plans to build on the success of That Guy with the Glasses with a network of new websites including Bar Fiesta (covering Chicago entertainment and nightlife), Blistered Thumbs (a spin off incorporating the current site's video game content) and InkedReality (anime, manga, and comic books). Michaud told the Chicago Sun-Times that he has 300 new show ideas in the works, intends to discover more performers like Walker, and has plans to increase revenue through sponsorships and merchandising.

On June 28, 2012, Channel Awesome content producers Doug Walker (The Nostalgia Critic), Lindsay Ellis (The Nostalgia Chick), and Todd Nathanson (Todd in the Shadows) signed exclusivity deals with Blip.tv, the video website which has directly hosted most TGWTG and Channel Awesome programming since they left Revver in 2008. The deal will not affect the appearance of the producers' videos on Channel Awesome's That Guy with the Glasses website, and would assist the increase of budget of the three series, as well as provide technical improvements. An extension of this deal is a Blip-run YouTube channel called "League of Super Critics" which features truncated versions of recent videos from the three producers.