Management controversies
Initial allegations
Between October 2014 and January 2015, several long-time content producers departed from Channel Awesome. In March 2018, several former producers alleged, via a series of Twitter posts, mismanagement and mistreatment by members of Channel Awesome's upper management, including the Walker brothers and Michaud. The allegations included a history of sexist behavior toward female producers as well as a history of unprofessional, aggressive and immature behavior towards other content creators by Michaud, incompetence by the Walker brothers during production of the company's anniversary films, and failure to communicate with producers about significant decisions affecting them. One such allegation from Lindsay Ellis stated that during production on the film To Boldly Flee, she was repeatedly pressured into looping a scene in which her character was implied to be raped off-screen by Lewis Lovhaug's character. She further alleged that due to her and Lovhaug's protests over the scene's content, Doug Walker rewrote it so the implication of assault was less implicit. Ellis said that she was forced to perform the scene under intimidation.
In March and April 2018, several more producers—including Lovhaug (Linkara), Todd Nathanson (Todd in the Shadows), Daren Jackson (Rap Critic) and Mike Jeavons (MikeJ)—departed from Channel Awesome.
Further departures
On April 2, 2018, a group of former Channel Awesome contributors and employees publicly released a document, entitled "Not So Awesome", via Google Drive. The document compiled grievances against the company, both those that had been previously made and ones that had not yet been publicly known. Over twenty former producers and employees, along with two individuals whose identities were kept anonymous, provided various allegations in the document, including poor communication and management, verbal abuse and bullying, and sexual harassment and misconduct. The subsequent response from Channel Awesome was criticized by fans and the company's former producers, as they felt the company was not apologizing or taking responsibility for their wrongdoings.
On that and the following days, more producers, including Omar Ahmed (Yomarz), Nash Bozard, Mathew Buck (Film Brain), Tony Goldmark (Some Jerk with a Camera), Elisa Hansen (Maven), Brian Heinz (The Last Angry Geek), Leeman Kessler (Ask Lovecraft), Heather McDonald (Calluna), Dominic Smith (The Dom), Luke Spencer (Rocked) and Chris Stuckmann, left Channel Awesome, with some citing their dissatisfaction with the company's response to the controversy as their reason for doing so, lowering the number of producers for the website from forty to about ten by April 5. Channel Awesome's planned tenth anniversary was cancelled as a result of the controversy.
Second response and fallout
On April 11, 2018, Channel Awesome released a second response to the allegations as a blog post on its website. Titled "Our Response", the post was intended to refute the "most egregious" of the allegations made by former producers, Holly Brown and Jane Doe, who are described within it as "disgruntled individuals with vindictive intentions".
Within 48 hours of the response's posting, nearly all of Channel Awesome's remaining producers, including long-time veterans Joe Vargas (Angry Joe), Bennett White (Bennett the Sage) and Lawrence Simpson (MasakoX), as well as Gaming Wildlife, Bargain Boy, Ryan Molina (Battle Geek Plus), Timid Jester, DToons Productions (maker of the series Toons These Days) and Eric Rodriguez (Blockbuster Buster), also left the website.
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Since April 14, 2018, the website listed two remaining producers apart from the Walkers: Brad Jones (Cinema Snob) and Larry Bundy Jr. (Guru Larry); the latter stated that among his reasons for remaining were that "no one ever actually believed [he] was ever on TGWTG". On February 16, 2024, Bundy Jr. announced on Twitter that he was kicked off Channel Awesome. However, this was due to the website having been deactivated since January 2024.
On August 2, 2021, Doug Walker acknowledged the controversy in an interview with Korey Coleman on Double Toasted. He admitted that Channel Awesome had gotten "too big" and thus resulted in poor communication among the staff and producers. Since then, they had been consciously trying to keep everything closer and more personal.
