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Social media influences TV productions

Producers monitor instant feedback and shape future storylines in response to audience reaction.

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2013-02-09_2350Producers are praising the instant feedback they receive from social media today, in an article about how online comments can influence the direction of TV shows.

Nick Murray, CEO of production company Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder, says Bondi Rescue is now narrated by the lifesavers following audience reactions gauged on social media.

“We have looked at the analytics of various social media channels and we now know what people like and don’t like about the show,” he told News Limited.

“Some people think the show is about drama and people being rescued and all that kind of stuff, but when we look at the analytics you see people love the lifeguards, and they’re interested in the lifeguards’ stories so we’ve changed the show this year now to reflect the lifeguards much more strongly.”

Both House Husbands and Offspring have shaped story arcs as a result of online comments.

Playmaker Media director David Taylor said “There were moments in (House Husbands) where we’d worked really hard to make sure that there was a story or character element working, and to get immediate feedback that you were on track for your target audience – social media is great for that.”

Offspring writer Michael Lucas acknowledged that while the show is already completed, viewer frustration over Asher Keddie and Don Hany’s on-again-off-again romance in season one had helped convince the writers to take a different tack the following year.

You blogged, they listened?

6 Responses

  1. SBS were doing this years ago with Going Home and Twenty4Seven.

    OK, it wasn’t social media as we know it today but it was taking viewer feedback online in developing storylines and characters for the show.

  2. I would like to know what percentage of the audience actually get involved in social media comments like Twitter, I suspect very small. It’s odd then that they have such power over program content

  3. I think it’s ironic that Nick Murray is quoted in an article related to social media. Cordell Jigsaw have always been so behind the other production companies in there digital media, as they have in their development.

    Nick Murray is the biggest self promoter in the Aussie TV biz.

  4. remember the O.C fans were commenting on how much they hated mischa barton and her character Marissa. So the producers killed her off… the show lasted one more season, because all though fans hated her, without her the show flopped.

    Fans of a show can be the shows worst enemy.

    Bondi Rescue is extremely successful I hope these changes won’t bring it crashing down.

  5. US writers have kept an eye on fans at conventions and on usenet for over a decade and have even posted on blogs for a while. The problem was that TV shows need a broader audience than just their hard core fans.

    Facebook and Twitter give you a much broader picture of what viewers are thinking.

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