Anyone know what is happening? I am getting tons of videos showing this guy and him "Falling from grace." I am seeing a ton of hate on him and his channel and what they are doing. Anyone know what happened? Did some scandal happen? I don't want to click on these vids cause I don't watch this guy anyways. Some are saying he is a horrible person in the titles!
This is a quite a chunk to read. Mainly mis-management, sexual harassment, bad content, and stupidity.
Between October 2014 through January 2015, long-time content producers Jacob Chapman, Allison Pregler, Lindsay Ellis, Phelan Porteous and Andrew Dickman left Channel Awesome. Upon leaving, Allison Pregler accused the site management of abusing talent, hypocrisy and scamming nearly $90,000 from fans with an Indiegogo campaign. Pregler also claimed to have been fired for not answering a Skype call with Channel Awesome CEO Michael Michaud, who accused her of ignoring him when she didn't respond to his message within the first 15 minutes. Pregler cited many problems behind the management of Channel Awesome and the lack of communication between the Chicago division of the company and the outside content producers. Pregler stated she was yelled at by management for putting up mid roll ads on her videos and was not allowed to promote her Patreon, despite other users being allowed to do so. She also shared screenshots of her conversations with both Michaud and Robert Walker, the latter of whom said the Patreon links were "a non-negotiable point" and "a slap in the face" to the fans. Following Pregler's dismissal, Phelan Porteous informed Robert Walker of his own departure. Porteous claimed Michaud retaliated by deleting all 6 years of his videos from the site without warning. Jacob Chapman also cited a lack of communication for his departure.
Now here is the new stuff.
In March 2018, several former producers alleged via a series of Twitter posts
mismanagement and mistreatment by members of the company's upper-management, including the Walker brothers and CEO Mike Michaud. The allegations include a history of sexist comments and verbal abuse by Michaud toward female producers, sale of producer-made artwork without financial compensation, mismanagement of content on the website, and a regular failure to properly communicate with producers or address grievances.
Holly Christine Brown, who served as head administrator and Director of Human Resources, alleges that following a summary dismissal after a surgery, her severance pay was withheld until she signed a contract prohibiting her from seeking employment at another production company for a period of 2-4 years. Brown further alleges
that chief operating officer Mike Ellis repeatedly threatened her following his dismissal from the company. Then-producer Lindsay Ellis during the production of the film To Boldly Flee, was repeatedly pressured into performing looping for a scene in which her character is raped off-screen. Due to Ellis' protests over the scene's content, Doug Walker rewrote it to her
"being assaulted". Ellis alleges that she was forced to perform the scene under intimidation. Producer Dan Olson alleges wrongful dismissal after he uploaded a video critical of the Gamergate controversy. Further complaints surrounded the alleged
misallocation of $90,000 in funds compiled as part of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. Soon afterwards, #ChangeTheChannel began trending on Twitter.
In response to the complaints, several producers – including Lewis Lovhaug (Linkara), Todd Nathanson (Todd in the Shadows) and Mike Jeavons (MikeJ) – have since left the company. In his departure video, Jeavons expressed his frustration with Channel Awesome management and claimed information was often withheld from the content creators. Todd in the Shadows responded to the criticisms on Twitter claiming "I have seen no lies".
As of April 2, 2018, the grievances have been compiled and made public via a document published in Google Drive. Among them is an anonymous
allegation of sexually predatory behavior, including grooming, by an unnamed producer for the website. The accuser, an 18-year-old Jane Doe, further alleges that
after informing Channel Awesome management about the abuse, the producer was dismissed within a period of approximately a year. The official Channel Awesome Facebook and Twitter pages issued a response stating that they wanted what was best for their channel and are taking steps to improve their communications with producers. The statement was criticized by fans and former Channel Awesome producers as they felt
the company was not apologizing or taking responsibility for their wrongdoings. Shortly after the statement, more producers including Matthew Buck (Film Brain), Chris Stuckmann, Tony Goldmark (Some Jerk With a Camera), Brian Heinz (The Last Angry Geek), Dominic Smith (The Dom), Heather McDonald (Calluna), and Nash Bozard announced their departure from the website, with some citing the website's poor response to the controversy as being part of the deciding factor to leave. The 10th anniversary video they were planning for the channel was cancelled as a result of the controversy. The
backlash led to a drop of over 15,000 subscribers within days after the document's release.
And a full video essay of the situations leading up to this point. It goes very in-depth.