FishCenter Live
FishCenter Live is an American talk show hosted by Dave Bonawits, Andrew Choe, Matt Harrigan, Christina Loranger, 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 weekday call-in talk show narrating over footage of tropical fish swimming around in a fish tank. The fish are ranked according to their points, which are awarded when the fish complete a number of challenges. These challenges include "Coins Quest," floating over coins that are superimposed on the video feed.The show is hosted by Dave Bonawits, Andrew Choe, Matt Harrigan, Christina Loranger, and Max Simonet, employees from the digital department room of Adult Swim. 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.
Later, both David Bonawits and Max Simonet co-created Tender Touches. As of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hosts have started cooking steak.
Games
The callers, fish, and guests compete for points in various games:- Coin Quest: fish swim into the coins superimposed over the tank to collect points. A live-version sponsored by Snickers was played at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con where the fish swim into the Snickers chocolate bars to "eat" them. Rednex's "Cotton Eye Joe" is frequently played.
- Alvuvuzelays Noise Game: the band Alvvays competed in a vuvuzela impersonation game. They also did a quiz on Canadian Thanksgiving.
- Guess This Gourd: a game with Post Malone.
- More-Bid-Angel: someone had to choose the highest-priced angel figurine.
- Truth or Se-Dare-Is: Truth or dare? with author David Sedaris. The caller dared Sedaris to wear socks on his hands for the rest of the show.
- What's Your Fetus?: made for death metal band Dying Fetus, someone had to guess what was hidden in a person's pelvic region based on a X-ray photograph.
Guests
Animal cast
Former animal cast
Super and Galaxy Kings
Sir Squirt was represented by Hamburger in the 2016 Galaxy series. Due to Sir Squirt's death the second place fish for the Winter season, being Hamburger, was declared the Super King representative.Ale was represented by TX Cupper in the 2018 Galaxy series due to Ale's untimely death earlier in the year.
Guests
, Alvvays, George Clinton, Carach Angren, Consider the Source, Dinosaur Jr. Dying Fetus, Billie Eilish, Daughters, Hard Working Americans, Colin Hay, Le Butcherettes, Los Lobos, Morbid Angel, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, David Sedaris, Tower of Power, Trampled by Turtles, and Turkuaz played on FishCenter Live. Alvvays' played the song "Not My Baby" from their sophomore album Antisocialites. HWA played the songs "Burn Out Shoes" and "Half Ass Moses". HWA was on tour promoting their live album We’re All In This Together. Post Malone was also a guest but got bitten by Mom after drinking 9 beers. Waka Flocka Flame and DJ Whoo Kid played on FCL as well. Fish-themed Joy Division cover band, Koi Division, said their dream is to appear on FishCenter Live.Collaboration
In 24 October 2019, American rock band Cage the Elephant's released a music video for the song "Social Cues" from their album Social Cues. It was shot at FishCenter Live with additional direction from Matt Shultz.Homages
In the episode broadcast Thursday, 13 December 2018, a parody of the s USS Enterprise was featured called the "USS FishCenterprise NCC-1065." 1065 is a reference to the street number for Williams Street, which produces content for Adult Swim.Broadcast and reception
FishCenter Live was originally released in September 2014 on Adult Swim's official website. 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.In the first week of its televised broadcast, the show garnered 2.6 million viewers in total. 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. 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.
In August 2017, a premiere of a Rick and Morty episode was delayed due to an episode of FishCenter Live on the same live stream.
Critical reception has been positive. Adweeks Jason Lynch called FishCenter Live "its flagship livestreaming show." The Comedy Bureau received the series favorably with "you’ll find, while giggling the whole way through, that you do get sort of invested in the individual fish." Deciders Kayla Cobb said "t's weird, but it works." Ranked sixth in their list of best "unknown" television series of 2015, Newsdays Verne Gay reviewed "“FC Live” is insane — as such, a perfect distillation of all that is Adult Swim." The Outlines Samuel Argyle said "FishCenter border on the avant-garde. JamBases Andy Kahn called it "wacky." The Guardians Mark Lawson critiqued "Ambitiously, this is a phone-in show, although disappointingly, the fish don’t take the calls, but swim in tanks that surround the presenters." The A.V. Clubs Erik Lindvall said 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".
Live for Live Musics Ming Lee Newcomb described FishCenter Live as "eccentric" and "bizarre." Ranked fourth in their list of "he 26 Weirdest Adult Swim Shows Ever," Deadspins Sheldon Pearce commented "Adult Swim employees came up with this one, which means it’s definitely on-brand if nothing else." In reviewing Tender Touches, Geeks Jose Rodriguez said the pilot had "more in common with or FishCenter." Reviewing their Alvvays performance, Uproxxs Derrick Rossignol declared "every band should be on it, because at the very least, it’s one of the most bizarre live internet shows you can possibly watch." Later, while reviewing the Post Malone episode, Rossignol followed-up with "a totally bizarre, daytime, aquatic, call-in web show that doesn’t make much sense, and that’s what makes it great." In an interview with host Max Simonet, Sonoma Index-Tribunes David Templeton remarked " a bizarrely simple cult-hit web-and-television show."
Controversy
In 2016, two Dragon Con cosplayers, claiming an association with Adult Swim and Cartoon Network and wore "Make FishCenter Great Again" hats, dressed as the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks. Images of the cosplay were widely shared on social media sites as Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. Bleeding Cools Rich Johnston speculated they were cosplaying as the game Rampage, while Facebook commenters drew a connection with the anime Terror in Resonance.Australian Adaption
Australian channel 9Go! promoted their Australian adaption of Fishcenter airing at 12:00 on the channelalong with the Adult Swim block they have on the channel.