FishCenter Live

FishCenter Live
The words "fish" and "center" in capital letters surrounding a picture of a blue fish enclosed in a circle, all of which is on a blue background
Genre Comedy
Talk show
Presented by
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 319 (as of January 2016)
Production
Running time 11 minutes (television)
Production company(s) Williams Street
Release
Original network AdultSwim.com (online)
Adult Swim (television)
Original release September 22, 2014 (2014-09-22) – present
External links
Website

FishCenter Live (also shortened to FishCenter) is an American talk show hosted by Dave Bonawits, Andrew Choe, Matt Harrigan, and Max Simonet. It premiered on the official website of Adult Swim in September 2014; it started airing on the network proper in February 2015.

Summary and production

FishCenter Live is presented as a call-in talk show narrating over footage of tropical fish swimming around in a fish tank.[1] The fish are ranked according to their points, which are awarded when the fish complete a number of challenges.[2] These challenges include floating over coins that are superimposed on the video feed. The show is hosted by Dave Bonawits, Andrew Choe, Matt Harrigan,[lower-alpha 1] and Max Simonet, employees of Adult Swim, from the network's digital department room. An original incarnation of the show involved a straight video feed of the fish tank, without narration. Commentary and a phone number for call-in segments were later added. Initially, callers were mostly other Adult Swim employees; when the competition portion was added, the hosts saw an increase of outside callers.[4]

Animal cast

Name Species Tank
Greenbird Bird wrasse Main tank
Th'Lump White-spotted puffer Junior league tank
Hamburger Zebra moray Main tank
Mimosa Queen coris Main tank
Jeremy Legg Cuban hogfish Junior league tank
Slider Sailfin tang Junior league tank
Lupin the Third Foxface rabbitfish Junior league tank
Styletoy Flame Angelfish Main tank
TopXanderCupper Pinktail Triggerfish Main tank
Ale Squirrelfish Main tank

Former cast

Name Species Reason for departure
Dottie Clown triggerfish Death (February 19, 2016)
Long Donovan Yellow-brown wrasse Death (August 26, 2016)
Mammoth Harlequin tuskfish Death (September 6, 2016)
Ronside Majestic angelfish Death (September 21, 2016)
Sir Squirt Lagoon triggerfish Death (October 3, 2016)
"Yo Hal Look At That Tang" Tang Sohal surgeonfish Removed from tank due to size and aggression
Ol' Blue King angelfish Removed from tank due to size and aggression

Broadcast and reception

What is our version of a sports show? What is our version of a relationship Q&A show? You can test these things out, just as we did with FishCenter, in an office with a couple microphones.

Mike Lazzo, Adult Swim executive[4]

FishCenter Live was originally released in September 2014 on Adult Swim's official website.[5] The show came about when staff decided to film the tropical fish swimming around their aquarium as an idea for developing content for the website's online streaming channels. New episodes are presented on weekdays. The show was added to the network proper in February 2015, broadcast at 4 a.m. These airings are condensed versions of the live version, consisting of 11-minute highlights from each day.[4][lower-alpha 2]

In the first week of its televised broadcast, the show garnered 2.6 million viewers in total.[4] In a press release, the network ranked the program first place across all targeted demographics in its time slot during the second week of March 2015.[6] The network observed some of these viewers as confused Twitter users, wondering if the show was a prank. After these airings, live viewership rose from 120 to 5,000. The success led to the creation of a separate live stream dedicated to the network's Toonami block.[4]

Critical reception has been positive. Eric Lindvall of The A.V. Club called FishCenter "the latest weird thing" to come from the network "in a streak of really weird things", describing it as a "wonderful, web-based world of piscine sports".[2]

The robot character TOM of Adult Swim's Saturday night Toonami block has been stated to be a fan of the show.

Explanatory notes

  1. Harrigan, a creative director at the network, was first hired at Turner Broadcasting System in 1994. The Wall Street Journal observed this relationship as a rule of management to not "get hung up on hierarchy and protocol" at the studio.[3]
  2. These broadcast versions have also been uploaded to the network's YouTube channel.[2]

References

  1. Lindvall, Eric (February 11, 2015). "Discover the Wonderful, Web-Based World of Piscine Sports with Adult Swim's FishCenter Live". The A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Lindvall, Eric (February 11, 2015). "Discover the Wonderful, Web-Based World of Piscine Sports with Adult Swim's FishCenter Live". The A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  3. Jurgensen, John (March 12, 2015). "Shop Rules at Adult Swim". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Archived from the original on March 13, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Jurgensen, John (March 12, 2015). "Adult Swim: How to Run a Creative Hothouse". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Archived from the original on March 13, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  5. Jurgensen, John (March 12, 2015). "Adult Swim: How to Run a Creative Hothouse". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Archived from the original on March 13, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
    • For "September", see: Jurgensen, John (March 12, 2015). "Shop Rules at Adult Swim". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Archived from the original on March 13, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  6. Kondolojy, Amanda (March 10, 2015). "Monthly Ratings Notes for Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT & NBA TV: Rizzoli & Isles, Cougar Town, NBA Basketball & More". TV by the Numbers. Tribune Digital Ventures. Archived from the original on March 14, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.

Further reading

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