TWIT: 2015 A new year or beginning of the end?

Another year has passed heralded once again by Leo Laporte at the helm of his creation, TWIT.tv.  A new tradition begun last year finds the teletubby of tech firmly in his captain's chair for another 24 hour marathon that only Jerry Lewis could appreciate.

This year found the same antics, adoring hosts, special guests and events  as last year  not to mention an army of bleary eyed interns and engineers scurrying behind the scenes.

With lessons learned from the last go around under their collective belt, this year's extravaganza had plenty of polish but a noticeable deficit of popular talent in comparison. 

Gone were  the Bryan Brushwoods, Iyaz Ahktars and Tom Merritt's of years past replaced with studio interns and "contract" hosts who just happened to be in the neighborhood.

This year's festivities rang a bit hollow because of it.  A glaring reminder of just how much had been lost in the turmoil of 2014. 

The 2014 New Year's  Eve party also found a new addition, that being a charitable tie-in. 

UNICEF (unicefusa.org) was the chosen beneficiary of TWIT's  generosity this year with Leo reminding viewers of it every hour.

I'll cut to the chase....

UNICEF is certainly a worthy charity but considering the somewhat nebulous charter one has to wonder if it was an afterthought.  

It seemed that the entirety of the broadcast became about challenges for Leo and friends to perform ridiculous stunts ultimately reaching climax with Leo shaving his head and branding his posterior with a TWIT tattoo.

As the stunts rolled on it seemed  more and more like sad attempts to  resuscitate TWIT's image than garner donations.  The vacuum left by the exodus of TWIT talent and bad blood that has tainted the network in the past 2 years has born bitter fruit. 

Interviews with tertiary TWIT hosts like Rene' Ritchie and studio interns couldn't hide the fact that TWIT's stable didn't run very deep.  That and Leo seemed just a bit "too" friendly towards Chad Johnson whom he'd booted out of a full time gig just a few weeks before.

So when Laporte shaved his head as donations reached $40,000 and finally branded his own ass with a TWIT tattoo at the $50,000 threshold  I realized I was watching  little more than acts of desperation.

The videos that follow come from the event and are unedited for content or context.  I submit them for your own review.