Power in th preview

A few years ago, Fox allowed viewers a preview of a new fall show several weeks early.

The pilot episode of Glee aired in the summer and by fall, viewers were panting for more Journey remixes and high school angst. 

The following spring, NBC took its pilot for Awake and turned it loose online ahead of the series premiere.  People couldn’t stop talking about the new concept show about two simultaneous realities.

Skip ahead a few years and in 2014, major networks are regularly debuting their fall shows online before the official premiere on television. 

According to reports, fans of Fox’s Red Band Society donated $100,000 to charity in order to see the pilot early on various websites.  (Although how a TV show can have fans before anyone actually sees it is beyond me.)  And ABC has released the pilot for its new drama Forever online as well as the sitcom Selfie – a modern day version of My Fair Lady. 

Why? 

Their marketing departments would ask, “Why not?”

In this age of social media, word of mouth supports television almost as much as television builds social media.  This symbiotic relationship is all about getting people to watch the shows by making sure they’re talking about them.  But they won’t talk about them unless they’ve watched them.

It’s a classic chicken and the egg conundrum.  So they create the buzz online.  Or kill it with a single mouse-click.  Because, yes, releasing the hounds early can be a party killer if people aren’t entranced by what they see. 

Ironically, despite the show’s focus on social media in society today, some viewers who watched the Selfie pilot online were not amused.  This could lead to an even shorter lifespan this fall.  This is at a time when viewers are already complaining that shows are pulled from the schedule prematurely without being given a chance to develop.  And this new method of testing the waters is not going to extend the probationary period of new shows.

On the other hand, Red Band Society’s early release seems to have bought the network very positive buzz – that, despite the fact that viewers donated cash for the same honour bestowed by other networks for free. 

You might think that the early preview gives the viewer more input, more power.  That the networks will track the reactions and make changes using your valuable social media input.  Ironically, they already know what you’re going to say.  They’ve used test groups and quantified story lines.  Any changes have already been made. 

They don’t really care what you’re saying as long as you’re saying it about their show.  It’s all about catching your short attention span before the competitive fall TV season begins. 

So will all these previews change the success rate of new shows – which is less than ten percent on a good year?  The networks certainly hope so.  But it’s still all about who’s watching which channel this fall.  So choose wisely.