Esquire will help G4 become a more sophisticated man channel

By Sean O'Neal | December 10, 2012 | 9:41pm

Aux Features TV

Having been set up on a blind date with a new TV audience that its friend has begged it not to screw up this time, G4 has done its best to grow up fast—hiding the video games and Maxim-style cheesecake shots in the corners by breaking it off with Attack Of The Show and X-Play, then undergoing an "upscale and sophisticated" rebranding, maybe by wearing some nice chinos for once. Now it seems G4 could get a helping hand from someone who knows all about guilting males and male-centric cable channels into trying harder, Esquire Magazine, which has closed a deal with NBCUniversal to begin partnering on the new, reimagined network, right after it gets done with its upcoming winter fashion feature, "Actors You Sort Of Recognize In Suits You Can't Afford."

Esquire publisher Hearst already has stakes in cable networks Lifetime, A&E, History, and ESPN, so it seems fitting it would seize this opportunity to finally develop its own outlet through which it can talk about chambray pocket squares and $8,000 pea coats 24 hours a day, in between Cops reruns. Even better, the resulting endeavor will be called the Esquire Channel—a definite step-up from its former, tentative title G4Men, which would likely have attracted dudes in a way the network didn't entirely think through.