I think if I had-I had worked on it, like if I had really worked hard on it, I probably could have gotten on. But thank God I dodged that fucking bullet, right? 'Cause this, this, this is a fucking mess. And this response is the cherry on top of that mess.
Channel Awesome became infamous in the mid-to-late 2010s for several controversies. The site went from one of the biggest pages on the internet to a shell of its former self for all of the drama, controversy, and negative behavior that was exposed about the site's staff, which would ultimately cause the site to shut down and redirect to Doug Walker's channel on YouTube.
- The company as a whole became engulfed in controversy after a document titled "Not So Awesome
" came to light, listing numerous grievances with the company, including alleged aggressive and misogynistic behavior by CEO Mike Michaud, sexual misconduct allegations towards former CFO Mike Ellis and JewWario note , preferential treatment towards Doug Walker (which gave him a say in several corporate decisions), and reports of general mismanagement and incompetence. The company's attempts to contain the controversy only made things worse. Doug tried to stay away from the controversy, but posted the second company response on his Facebook, only mentioned the set improvements in a Salon interview (which he's discussed before as a problem), and seems more happy to hate himself on Critic with Self-Deprecation over being useless than reaching out to the people who worked with him. Almost all of the content creators left the site, #ChangeTheChannel trended on Twitter, and Channel Awesome had their reputation heavily damaged. - Allison Pregler, aka Obscurus Lupa, was removed from the site for (as she put it) being away from her computer during a Skype call she claimed she had no idea about beforehand. This led to her boyfriend, Phelan "Phelous" Porteous, leaving in protest. Nowadays, she's known for kickstarting the #ChangeTheChannel movement that exposed Channel Awesome's shady business practices (including her firing) and led to the near-complete exodus of contributors from the site. The controversy also led to Allison cutting ties with several long-term colleagues, particularly Brad Jones. While she continues to make content on her own, many people still treat her as a "figurehead" of that movement, and she's even had to tell a Vocal Minority of the movement not to harass people in her name.
- Brad Jones himself is probably known for being the only contributor outside of the Walkers' inner circle to remain loyal to the site in the fallout of #ChangeTheChannel note . Although previously critical of Channel Awesome's mismanagement, he subsequently dismissed all accusations of workplace abuse as either exaggerations or outright lies, infamously saying the mocking line "I just want an apology, whether you mean it or not!". He's especially infamous for a (later retracted) accusation of a malicious SWATting incident at the funeral of his father-in-law. This led to a breakdown of relations between Allison and Brad, with Allison removing all crossover videos the two did and one of Brad's producers cutting ties with him.
- The Amazing Atheist is remembered mostly for his videos talking about feminism and a time when he not only accused a rape victim of lying but also told him to re-experience the rape.
- Jake Norvell, a contributor of Brad Jones' works, is mostly known for dating (and later marrying) a girl Brad was interested in. The widely-reported story (allegedly spread by Brad himself) was that Brad was dating her and Jake stole her, but both Jake and Rayn, along with one of their friends, state that Rayn never dated Brad.
- The Nostalgia Critic:
- The Sailor Moon review is remembered mostly from the backlash it received from fans of the series for several jokes that were viewed as sexist, racist, and homophobic, using the soon-to-be-obsolete DiC/Cloverway dub instead of the original Japanese version despite acting like it was a review of the latter, and the fact that the Critic focused on the ages of the characters (calling it "Jailbait: The Show" and implying that it was created by and for creeps/sexual predators when it was actually created by a woman for young girls) over any of its actual merits. The controversy drove Doug Walker to refrain from creating more anime-related reviews outside of crossovers. note
- The Review Must Go On is mostly remembered for The Reveal that the events of Demo Reel were nothing more than a purgatory experience that happened to the Critic, creating a huge Cosmic Retcon.
- His fourth commercial special is mainly remembered for the Canadian Rape PSA. Critic criticized it for being tone deaf, but a lot of people mistook it as not liking the message. There was also the Double Standard sexual harassment Running Gag, in which he openly stated that men don't suffer from harassment because they can't tell who's interested in them or not note . Starting from Battle, Doug did an Author's Saving Throw, explaining through Critic he was just scared and being an overcompensating ass about it, and doing a better job of explaining why ads that focus more on Scare 'Em Straight don't work.
- His review of Jurassic World is mainly remembered for the fact that it came out while the movie was still in theaters, bypassing the inconvenience of not having footage from the film by having the cast reenact scenes from the film. This broke the Critic's promise back in The Review Must Go On. Critic mocked this in his "TRMGO" review, saying that he already broke a promise when he brought back the show.
- The Let's Play of The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare is far more well-known for the backlash it received than for the video itself, to the point where the following review of James and the Giant Peach had Critic apologizing for it at the start in a sketch where he got sent to prison for it (placed next to the State Home for the Ugly, no less).
- His TMNT review is mostly remembered for the joke he made about Splinter's voice sounding like he smoked a lot of Marlboros, unaware that his voice actor in that film, Mako, died of lung cancer. Critic apologized for it in his Red Sonja review released the following week, and later made a Running Gag about it where Critic acts like Mako is a Sacred Cow who must not be insulted.Critic: I don't hate Mako. I don't know Mako.
- His review of Ernest Saves Christmas was originally aired with a joke done when a bunch of kids are watching a puppet show where he says "Yes, I think he entertains the autistic children". It's the only joke he's ever edited out of any of his videos and is most likely the most controversial thing appearing in any of his "Nostalgia Critic Fuck-Ups" videos, as it caused a literal Elephant in the Room to appear.
- Doug Walker himself got caught up in controversy in late March 2018 when the "Not So Awesome" document came to light, particularly his preferential treatment, production of the Anniversary Specials, and being a part of the Skype call that got Pregler removed. For his part, Doug has apologized (in vlog videos and commentaries, not to his co-stars) for creator breakdowns on sets and discussed how he's got better with his reboot actors, but hasn't mentioned the other stuff and always stays quiet on Rob/Michaud. Generally, Doug has moved on and continued to make videos in either his new style or occasionally more down-to-earth videos about honest opinions without donning the Critic persona and no longer stirring up controversies, but these new videos are largely overshadowed with the "Not So Awesome" controversy.
- Doug Walker's brother, co-writer and Channel Awesome CFO Rob Walker, got hit with a larger backlash, not helped by his only response to the controversies being to delete his social media pages. His previously-seen-as-funny habit of smacking/groping Doug in videos (not to mention choking him while watching The Cat in the Hat, which he regretted) only made him look worse.
- Suburban Knights, the 3rd Anniversary special, is more known for its Troubled Production caused by the weather, as well as the fact that Doug seriously considered scrapping it, than for any of its merits. This later got reinforced when several producers discussed several details about the special's production that weren't mentioned in the documentary, particularly Doug trying to film random people on the street as extras, the crew breaking into playgrounds to shoot footage, and Iron Liz being roped into doing various menial tasks for the crew, which she wasn't paid or even credited for.
- To Boldly Flee, the 4th Anniversary special and the Grand Finale of The Nostalgia Critic's original run, has since been overshadowed by its Troubled Production, which was even worse than Suburban Knights. Several of the people who worked on it (most notably Allison Pregler) described it as a "point of no return" for their problems with Channel Awesome's management. Though the special itself still has its fans, even among the site's former contributors, hardly anyone will defend the special's production.
- Doug and Rob would argue constantly throughout the writing and shooting, dragging things out considerably. Several of the producers starring in the film found the script to be overlong, and no one was told about Doug's decision to retire the Critic until shooting began, making it seem as though they were essentially having their video careers sabotaged for the sake of the story.
- The "Mechakara assimilates The Nostalgia Chick" scene cuts away to Film Brain walking past the door, who then hears Chick making sexual-sounding moans, along with crashing sounds. This, along with him thinking they were having sex, makes it sound like she's being raped. It later got worse when a script was leaked that had Chick and Mechakara saying sexual innuendos. Then Lindsay Ellis and Lewis Lovhaug came forward saying that neither of them wanted to do the scene, Ellis had to be pressured into performing the ADR, she had no say in her character becoming a Seven of Nine parody at all, her name in this state (7 of 11) was originally 60 of 9, and Doug had no idea that it could look like a rape scene. Finally, Rob and Doug's commentary came to light, which confirmed that Doug really didn't get the rape subtext. It also revealed that Doug added in the crashing sounds to "make it sound more consensual", and when that didn't work he handed it off to Rob in a panic.
- Pop Quiz Hotshot is only remembered for a Troubled Production that showed Channel Awesome's poor management. It emerged as a goal from an Indiegogo fundraiser, promising 40 episodes. The show failed to emerge after a year and a half, but was forced to release the first episode when Indiegogo threatened to investigate them for fraud. Reception was very negative, a hiatus ensued before more episodes came out, and the overall run was only twelve episodes (the legal minimum required of them by Indiegogo).
- Justin "JewWario" Carmical was a popular member of Channel Awesome, famous for You Can Play This! and frequently collaborating with site members. Carmical left Channel Awesome in 2013 and committed suicide a year later, with many fans and fellow members paying tribute to him. Five years later, during #ChangeTheChannel, Channel Awesome, in response to accusations they had failed to deal with a then-unnamednote sexual predator in the company, released a screencap depicting a chatroom between them and an anonymous employee that filed out a sexual harassment complaint on February 12th, 2013. Between the chat stating the perpetrator would be fired on Friday (i.e. February 15th, the same day Carmical announced his departure), and Channel Awesome's poorly-done censorship, Carmical was revealed as the unnamed predator. Making matters worse, further evidence indicated Channel Awesome higher-ups knew about Carmical's behavior before 2013, but did nothing until the harassment got violent and actively suppressed information (though the victim reportedly did not want to press charges against Carmical). Carmical's reputation took a 180, and most posthumous tributes to Carmical were removed as a result. MarzGurl, meanwhile, added a disclaimer to tribute film Farewell, FamiKamen Rider, stating it is remaining up for historical purposes and that she was unaware of Carmical's true colors.
- Noah Antwiler, also known as The Spoony One, was once a very popular and respected internet personality, and his involvement with Channel Awesome helped to boost its popularity in its early days. Noah further stood out by being willing to discuss a wide number of topics, including Dungeons & Dragons, movies, video games, and professional wrestling when most reviewers largely stuck to a specific thing. His reputation first started declining after a major Schedule Slip in 2011 caused by a severe Creator Breakdown due to health issues and a messy breakup with his then-girlfriend Scarlett (who had helped manage his site and content creation). After seemingly getting back on track, a sleazy tweet to JesuOtaku (who was in a relationship with Nash at the time) led to Noah being removed from Channel Awesome. The final nail in his reputation's coffin came in 2014 with his setting up a Patreon, where he would proceed to break his promises (such as creating a movie) in the wake of its success, prompting accusations of him freeloading off his fanbase,note and his content creation continuing to slow to a crawl to the point that he hasn't made any new video reviews. His vocal hatred of his own fanbase and perpetually negative attitude (both on- and off-camera) have only solidified his decline, with his own subreddit now branding itself the "second worst thing about the Spoony Experiment". As Fredrik Knudsen put it in his retrospective, Noah is now a cautionary tale of what fame can do to a person who can't handle it and burns themselves out, as well as a warning to not take viewers' goodwill for granted.
- Chad Rocco of Familiar Faces is mostly known for his extremely deep hatred of the later seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, particularly after Lauren Faust left, as well as rude and demeaning behavior towards anybody who enjoys them.
- Related to the "Not So Awesome" document, Doug and Allison's collab review of A Talking Cat!?! is now known far more for how CEO Mike Michaud confronted Allison after filming and viciously verbally harassed her for allegedly hampering the site's revenue with her ad policy than anything else.
