TV Host Exits Network, Sends Message to Her Fans

Ovilee May, the beloved internet and TV personality, dropped some pretty huge career news on Tuesday. In a video shared to YouTube and other social media channel, May revealed she was no longer affiliated with G4 TV. She has been one of the most popular personalities contracted to the network since it relaunched in 2021. "I'm very sad to say that as of July 18, my contract with G4 has ended and there are no current plans for renewal or G4 content with me involved in the near future," she said.

May has hosted two different shows for G4 throughout its relaunch, Boosted and The BLEEP Esports Show. Both were esports-focused, which was a specialty of May's, given her past work with LCS and Team Liquid. However, G4's esports strategy has changed several times through its soft launch and current iteration. Following Boosted's cancellation, her fellow esports colleagues Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez and Indiana "Froskurinn" Black have shifted their focus to the gaming review/discussion program Xplay. But May has only made a handful of appearances since, randomly popping up on Attack of the Show!, its spinoff Vibe Check, a sketch on the G4 esports channel and a few other livestreams. There have been steady cries from fans to give May a show centered on anime (her other expertise) or another project. However, it seems she and G4 execs weren't on the same page when it came to developing the right project together.

"While I enjoyed most of my time at G4, unfortunately, at the company's current state, I'm not able to execute on the projects or ideas that I really want to," she said in the goodbye video. "Now that being said, I'm always open to working with them again in the future if the stars align because I still do believe in the original concept of the network, and I absolutely love the fan base."

Despite the fact that she is no longer a G4 personality, she stressed that she treasures her time spent working with the network and its other hosts. "When I left the LCS for G4 in 2020, I was both incredibly nervous as well as excited about where my life was going," May recalled. "I was jumping from doing interviews and funny videos within the esports scene to building and launching a full-blown television network alongside talented and inspirational producers and hosts who helped me grow into the person that I am right now. Over the last two years I wrote a bunch of different skits, produced segments and bits that I thought would only exist in my dreams and imagination, and ended up creating full-blown shows and productions that somehow managed to make it onto my grandma's television screen. I learned so much more about hosting and working together with people on camera from the other hosts that I never would have learned or known if I hadn't met them.

"Not only did they help me build my confidence in hosting and on camera, but they also helped me through one of the darker times of my life and supported me to get to where I am today. I'm always going to be grateful for them and I definitely won't let G4 be the last place that I see them, interact with them, work with them, harass them, annoy — them just everything under the Sun. They're stuck with me."

In the immediate future, May noted that she's going to take it a bit easy for a while, being as she's been steadily working for years and recently recovered from undergoing surgery and contracting COVID-19. However, she's set on producing new content for her fans very soon.

"I've kind of been working non-stop over the last few years and my body decided that it was time to force me into taking a break," she said. "I've basically been shut down, so for the rest of the summer, I'll be taking it slow and focusing more on my personal content, as well as growth in my personal life before jumping back into the game full force. This is gonna be some time for me to do some self-reflecting within therapy and all that fun stuff before I burn out too quickly. Because if I do that, then it means no more fun content for anyone ever again.

"Now that being said I do have a lot of content ideas that I was saving for G4 that I'm now going to try to execute on my own. Now does that mean we're finally going to get an Ovilee anime show or some more cooking streams or more collab content? At this point, who knows? Everything's on the table. You're just gonna have to wait and find out."

As she wrapped up the video, titled "Goodbye G4 – Ovilee Update," she made sure to express her gratitude to the G4 audience. "G4 fans, thank you so much for opening your hearts and your doors and welcoming me into the community so quickly. This has been the craziest and most fun group of fans and people that I've ever seen or interacted with. Seeing you on my Twitch chat or in the Discord, receiving your fan mail or even being able to meet some of you at PAX has genuinely been some of the coolest interactions in my career. I hope that I can continue to entertain you outside of G4 because even though I won't be there anymore, I'm still gonna be bringing that same chaotic energy anywhere that I go."