Leo Laporte calling time on TWiT?

I hope Leo continues to do TWiT. I never miss an episode. You can't find this type of quality tech opinion anywhere else.

I'd miss TWiT, but I think I could live without it. The conversations wander quite a lot and people speak over one another way too often. I get a lot more usable information out of Security Now! and Inside the Net (although I haven't listened to the latter as much in recent months). I get my dose of Dvorak on Cranky Geeks over at DLTV, too. TWiT is very entertaining, but I rarely get any great analysis or news from there.

Yes, I agree, there is nothing really unique in its content but it is the most entertaining mix of technology news and views. For me its a very good start to the week. Part of its attraction is the mix of characters and that original mix will be difficult to replace as the original cast move to their own projects.

Difficult to know the economics of TWIT or the TWIT network. Are the other shows more commercial for less aggravation?

Perhaps they are cooking up a TWiT-type show for UndoTV and it would be too much work to produce both? With what they are trying to do with UndoTV, I can see a show of that style fitting well.

I have been listening to, and following the idea of TWiT since it began; and prior to that I was known to keep up with the shows on TechTV almost as a religious observance.

Having said that, I have to make a few observations.

The podcast that became TWiT first started as a one-off meeting of former TechTV employees (and a few who still were working with G4TV at the time). That get together as a quiet diversion from trying to cover MacWorld, was enough of a success as a gathering of friends that they decided to try doing it as a regular way of keeping in touch.

After a couple of attempts, a schedule was worked out that was comfortable for a few "regulars" and other friends to have a steady day and time to come together and shoot the breeze about their recent interests and projects as related to thier common interests in computer technology. But even then it was designed as an informal time to relax and "shoot the breeze" as it were, where none of the regulars were tied to the idea of having to be there for each meetup. In fact, one of the early ideas (IIRC) was to have a rotating plan of tracking down all the former cast and friends of their once popular show(s) to share a few laughs and catch up with their lives (which was half-jokingly referred to as RoTSS - the R standing for Return or Revenge depending upon your mood). Back then that was the general consensus, and going a week or two between releasing a new podcast was not considered a problem.

Then one day Leo jokingly commented about his former show Call for Help, that he would be willing to travel anywhere that wanted to pay him to do the show again. I half-expected Australia to take him up on the offer, but TechTV Canada beat them to it. That, along with the overwhelming response in subscriber numbers to help the TWiT podcast finance their early bandwidth and server space, and the explosion of Kevin Rose's return to his attempts at side projects such as Revision 3 and Digg.com, started to help the TWiT regulars realize that even though the network was gone, their established audience was still out there looking for more of the same kind of content.

I think that was the point where it turned from a hobby, back into a career path for many of the regulars... who were also engaged in getting their careers back on track by finding regular jobs in other news outlets. As such, even though many still thought the idea of visiting online with old friends appealing, it was also a potential conflict of interest for some of those same people who needed to
keep some tech news close at hand for their regular jobs, as well as a reminder of work, instead of a relief from it.

IMHO, it's not Leo's to keep. He does a lot of work on the back end to make it happen, and he chose to do a lot of the work to take it from a single podcast to a "Netcast Network" of sorts. And while I can respect that, this was all based on the initial idea of a gathering of friends, none of whom were originally beholden to the idea of having to actually work towards making it anything more than informal chatting. As soon as they started to move away from that idea, back towards the idea of being another ScreenSavers or TechLive, is when they started to lose what made listening to the familiar banter between somewhat knowledgeable technophiles appealing in the first place.

My commute this year has been cut from two hours a day to about 20 minutes, so I don't have as much time to listen as in the past. Because of this, I often don't get to TWIT. I like it, but it isn't my first priority because of some of the issues noted in comments above.

It would probably go up my priority list if he did it every-other week or even monthly.

-Rob

Unlike some I would miss TWIT and feel my week of tech just isn't complete without the show. The mix of opinion and comment of current tech events fills a gap that the rest of the news just can't cover. Perhaps Leo has spread himself a little thin with so many netcasts and the tendency of most would be to go with those shows that aren't as much work or so hard to get people together for. Another theory would be that because of all the other netcasts cover most of the news of the week by the time the TWIT'S all get together it's been covered ad nauseam and some of the interest in them is lost.

I really hope the show carries on, it will be sorely missed

I have listened to every episode of TWIT. I listen to all of Leo's podcasts. I like Leo. However, I have heard him bring up, several times, that he does almost all the work. I don't think he should complain really since he takes most of the credit. He wasn't complaining about how hard it was when he was winning pod person of the year or whatever that award was. That being said, I hope the show continues. I agree with the people that have pointed out that new guests along with some regulars is the way to go in the future. Patrick adds nothing to the show but negative, sarcastic commentary. He should be gone. They shouldn't even invite Kevin Rose back since all he knows how to do is show up for a plug for digg. I also believe that no one on the show owes Leo anything. DL.TV, Crankygeeks, and Diggnation are not here just because of Leo and TWIT, contrary to what all the fanboys are saying elsewhere. Leo does this every so often. Remember how he pissed and moaned, then finally agreed with everyone about how he acted in the "Woz" episode of TWIT. Sometimes Leo can be a big baby. If it's going to be his show he should act like it, and when someone just doesn't show up, don't invite them back. Before he had sponsors he would have called this a vacation.