Linkara was one of their "Big 5" talents on the site (NC, Cinema Snob, Linkara, Angry Joe, and Spoony).
Spoony crashing and burning was a fluke for them and they adapted to survive with just the "Core 4"
But now Linkara bails. And over the last year or so, Joe has moved most of his stuff to Youtube and looks ready to jump ship soon.
I wonder how long they can last with potentially just Brad and Doug... No one gives a shit about anyone else on the site right now.
Also, a bit of background for the "Why the fuck did Doug give Mike so much control!?" questions:
It's because Doug didn't plan ahead, panicked, and made a shitty snap-decision.
While working his normal job, Doug made his first Nolstalgia Critic reviews on Youtube. He got a lot of views, a ton of positive feedback, and more money via Youtube Bucks than he made at his actual job.
So, without doing any planning or research, he quit his job in that infamously autistic video that made him pretty much unemployable. And decided to do Nolstalgia Critic on Youtube as a full time job.
Then the copyright claims hit, taking down most of Doug's videos. He was in trouble. He just burned bridges at his job and now, with bills piling up, he couldn't make money on his videos.
Enter his "Friend" Mike, who saw an opportunity. Mike used money he had (Savings or loans from family, possibly) to rent a server, set up a website/host, and hire a lawyer to draw up a huge, complicated contract to employ Doug, with all the benefits to him (IP ownership, noncompete clauses, majority shareholder status) buried deep within.
He approached Doug with the angle of "You've got talent and I have some resources. Sign up and I'll manage you and host your videos, safe from Youtube Copyright. And you just keep doing what you do!" Doug was desperate and signed without reading.
The rest is history.