We’re coming up on May sweeps, and it’s make or break for a lot of TV shows. And a lot of shows are on the bubble, including my own beloved Hannibal. Fortunately, you can use the Internet to help save your shows, and it’s fast, too.
How? Just go to Amazon or iTunes, find your show, and buy the current season if you haven’t already. That’s it. That’s all you need to do. It’s not a guaranteed win, but it’s a powerful statement.
The economics of television have been shifting for a while. It’s easy to forget that for broadcast networks, we the viewers are the product sold to advertisers. And to be frank, the system used to evaluate that just can’t keep up and it doesn’t use the marketing data we give it to full effect. That means a lot of shows get screwed.
To this point, fans have tried petitions, letter-writing campaigns, and sending food products to the network, but the truth is that television is a business about money, and nothing gets attention quite like throwing your money at a show. But until very recently, that was impossible.
Now it’s possible, and more importantly, it’s the most attention-getting method you can employ. There is quite literally nothing a studio loves more than a show making money. The more a fan base is willing to put their money where their fandom is, the harder the studio will fight for the show, or the more willing they’ll be to shift networks. If a production company sees enough money coming in to pay for the show from the fanbase, that’s a strong argument for keeping the show.
So, if you love a show, and it’s not already canceled, pay up. If nothing else, it means you’ll have backups if it doesn’t come to Netflix.