Television Channels Online: Offering What the Viewer Really Wants to Watch

Although the social media are heavily criticized, many people seem to disregard one of their biggest influences – the one caused by the fan bases. Through social media the fans were able to save many television shows that were sure to be cancelled by studio executives because they did not make the expected ratings. However, many of these get cancelled because they already get a bad time slot and many fans get to discover them only later. And, surprisingly, most of these through internet portals. This essay will focus on how social forums can save television series.

The first case that has to be examined is that of Community. This was a 20-minute comedy on NBC that was up for cancellation after almost each season. The first time it was saved by the DVD sales through Amazon; then the actors themselves turned to forums to urge the fans to let their voices be heard if they wished for the show to continue. If one wished to partake in the campaign they could follow the petition’s twitter page @SaveNBCommunity as well as sign an online petition on save-community.com. The creator of the show, Dan Harmon, advertised the show with the tagline “Six seasons and a movie”. Seeing that the show was up for so many cancellations, the creators of the show ensured the viewers that they have an ending in place. This tagline was then turned into a hashtag and is now very commonly used to reference the show.

When NBC did pull the plug at the end of the fifth season, public outrage followed. However, one portal knew of the immense cult following this show had gathered over the past five years and decided to save the show. This portal was Yahoo!, and in an interview for the Guardian, creator Dan Harmon said, “I am very pleased that Community will be returning for its predestined sixth season on Yahoo. I look forward to bringing our beloved NBC sitcom to a larger audience by moving it online” (Nicholson).

The second case is that of a cartoon called The Legend Of Korra. This Nickelodeon cartoon deliberately decided to go digital – and make its episodes available only online – with the same intent of reaching a wider audience. At the San Diego Comic-Con, co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino said that for the series two finale, “the numbers were insane when they streamed it, when it went on Nick.com” (Trendacoste). The creator added that it was the biggest event they had that year. This was also proven by the fact that the digital downloads for that season reached a new rating high, which the television event could never reach. This was one of the main reasons for the shift. As more and more shows seem to gain popularity online, perhaps executives are looking at a shift in platforms for good, rather than using both.

Thirdly, a BBC television show by the name of Ripper Street was saved by online petitions, facebook groups and twitter hashtags, as well. The show, which is a period piece set in 1889, focuses on a detective and his companion who use the help of an American army veteran doctor and the connections of a woman who runs a brothel to solve murder cases. The second season unfortunately did not generate the same numbers as the first, and thus, BBC cancelled it. However, the fans were quite against this decision. What followed were facebook groups and petitions along with twitter pages, @SaveRipperStreet, and hashtags that cited the third season: #ripperstreet3. The show was then indeed saved and is now filming its third season by popular demand.

With social media the fans, have much more influence than they did just five years ago. To showcase this, the essay looked more thoroughly at two cases when fans managed to save a show and another when the distributors themselves decided to reach a much wider audience thanks to television channels provided online. Although social forums are heavily criticized for all the harm they might cause, nobody seems to focus on the positive additions that it provides as, well. After all, it is perhaps better to watch a quality television series that was cancelled due to poor scheduling than another reality show being renewed because it has the money for it.

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Works cited

Nicholson, Rebecca. "Cool cool cool: Community picked up for sixth season by Yahoo." The Guardian. The Guardian. 1 Jul. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

Barr, Merrill. "'The Legend of Korra' Will Outlive Nickelodeon's Short-Sighted Business Decisions." Forbes. Forbes. 23 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

Trendacosta, Katharine. "Creators of The Legend of Korra Explain the Show's Not-Cancellation." io9.com. 25 July 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

Jaworski, Michelle. "'Legend of Korra' goes digital after Nickelodeon takes it off the air." The Daily Dot. 24 July 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

Jefferies, Mark and Walker, Danny. "Ripper Street brought back to life by BBC and Amazon's on-demand Prime Instant deal for series three." Mirror. 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.