Well, the tweet-peat experiment has certainly created quite a stir online! Speaking as someone who is very much interested in ‘new media’, witnessing television and social media collide like that was a disorientating, but fascinating experience.
Between FF and FB we received 33 emails worth of complaints from angry viewers upset that their screens were filled with “intrusive” twitter-tweets. Imagine how many FOX received! At first glance it would appear that the tweet-peat was a total disaster, but with more forewarning viewers might have been a little more prepared. I think a lot of the strongest complaints were from those who had no idea that their screens would be invaded by tweets, which is fair enough, I’d be upset too if I came home to find Sanford Harris in my living room.
But it wasn’t all bad, far from it – there was a lot of love and appreciation as for Team Fringe.
Anyway, below the jump are 6 things I learned from the Fringe Tweet-peat experiment:
1) Social Media and Television can dovetail, but viewers want choice.
Here’s the thing, the idea is a good one – I’d like to have a beer with whoever thought of it because their mind is on the ball. But viewers want the option to watch their favorite programmes in their own way (and increasingly, in their own time). I suggest that next time they find a way to make the on-screen tweets ‘optional’ by letting those who don’t want their viewing to be infringed to press the red button on their remote, or something. The large majority of the complaints that came through to us included the statement “I’ll stop watching if this happens again”. Yikes!
2) Fringe has three distinct viewer groups.
Just a theory, but there seem to be those who follow the show religiously and enjoy interacting with the show and fellow fans online on a regular basis, those who watch the show every week but don’t participate beyond that, and casual viewers who perhaps watch every once in a while. I suspect that a large % if the latter two groups were mightily p*ssed off last night.
3) In general, most viewers are resistant to change.
Which is strange seeing as technology and society seem to be speeding up with each passing day. But it’s true that the best change is that which is seamless, or at least publicised. Viewers respond better to differences in their scheduled viewing if they are informed – it looks like the word didn’t get around enough on this first run! I mean, you can blame people for being upset – I jokingly gave the Harris anology above, but you get the point.
4) Team Fringe are good sports.
It’s a no brainer that they’d want to promote their show, but taking the time out to interact with fans in such an open environment shows that they believe in their product and care about the show. I’m sure their tweets were moderated but you have to give them credit for braving the stream of fandom like that.
5) Publicity
Sure, a lot of viewers were put-off, but there’s no way Fringe didn’t gain (or re-gain) a sizeable amount of viewers who will now be tuning in for the season 2 premiere on September 17th as a result of the viral effect. It’s always a fine line but I think this might just work in their favour.
6) Some useful but not too spoilery information was gleaned.
There were a few interesting tweets from the producers which caught my eye (mild spoilers):
@JPFRINGE: “Very freaky #Fringe disease coming up this season. It’s called Miyares.”
“of course the cow (GENE) will be back this year. What is #Fringe without a cow?!”
@JWFRINGE: “There will be more about Olivia’s family this season, yes.”
“The Observer WILL be back, and you will learn MUCH more about him this season.”
“Yes, there will be many more clues embedded in the show this year. Keep a CLOSE eye.”
You can view the #Fringe tweets here.
All in all, I’d say the Fringe Tweet-peats were a mixed bag, but definitely worth doing as a one-off. According to reports, FOX will look at the feedback before making plans to do any more tweet-peats (although Glee has theirs scheduled tonight). Like I said earlier in the week, I prefer this type of stuff to be on DVD extras or official podcasts, but I’m also open to new things. With a bit of tailoring, tweet-peats could be more regular and effective occurrence for repeated episodes.
Feel free to vote in the poll whether you’d like to see Tweet-peats return for Fringe:
Loading ...
[original image: TechCrunch]
Science Channel Confirms Fringe Hasn't Been Cancelled
Fringe Seasons 1-4 On Netflix
Team Fringe's New Show: Almost Human - 4 Minute Trailer
Almost Human - 4 Minute Featurette Teases Upcoming J.H. Wyman Series
FRINGE Final Season & Complete Series DVD Release Date & First-Look
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I didn’t watch the episode last night because I didn’t realize it was going to be like that. I thought the Tweets were just going to be on Twitter. My mistake. If I had understood, I would have watched.
I don’t understand why people were upset, though. How was it diferrent from an enhanced episode of LOST that shows commentary at the bottom of the screen? Also, it was a rerun, not a new episode. If you want to watch it without the twitter commentary, simply buy or rent the DVD set next week.
Like:
0
Like:
0
They said something about a disease involving hiccups too.
Like:
0
Thank you, Fox, for ruining one of the most interesting shows on television. Twitter, the dumbing down of the Internet, 140 characters at a time…
Like:
0
I didn’t see the Tweet-peat, but I think people who get bent out of shape about how summer re-runs are presented are people who are unlikely to watch on a regular basis anyway. This was one episode shown out of context (because FOX hasn’t been running re-runs all summer) and they tried something novel to generate a little buzz heading into a new season. It ain’t no biggie, no matter how many people think it portends the end of their world.
ABC spent all of last season (and maybe previous seasons?) showing a captioned (with trivia and refreshers) version of the previous week’s show just prior to airing the new episode. Did “Lost” fans everywhere threaten to quit watching? Did they burn their bras in protest? Did they march on Washington? If so, I didn’t hear a peep about it. Are “Lost” fans that much more mature? I’m just sayin’.
Let’s keep things in perspective. It’s a summer re-run. Everyone who is interested in “Fringe” has already seen every episode AT LEAST twice, sans Tweets.
Like:
0
So, I was rather surprised at all the extremely harsh opinions regarding the tweet-peat. I’ll admit that it was somewhat annoying to have the characters or the scene occasionally obscured by comments, and that it was difficult to follow both the story and what was being said. But despite that, I really rather enjoyed it. It definitely wasn’t the way to watch the show for the first time, but for those who had already seen it (which, you have to admit, is typically those who are most likely to watch the repeats anyway), it was a great way to give added motivation to want to watch the rerun and to have the opportunity to learn more about the episode and the show directly from the cast and producers. I certainly think that the…threats?… to stop watching the show because of this is rather excessive. Goodness, it wasn’t that bad. And it’s not like this is even the first time something similar to this has been done. It’s really not that big a deal.
Okay, moving on. I thought there were many great comments from all four of the participants. Some of them were just neat inside details, others were spoilers, others made me think and reexamine some of the possibilities. The following are some of what stood out to me the most:
The Observer:
JW: “The Observer WILL be back, and you will learn MUCH more about him this season.” And JP: “We will learn much more about The Observer in the coming season.” – I’m very excited to learn more of the background behind the Observer – where he came from, what he’s doing, etc.
JW: “Yes, we are thinking of bringing the Observer Kid back. Great question.” – I would love to see the child again! I think that would be a great way to learn more about the Observer.
JP: “No, The Observer does not work for William Bell…” – Good to know! In that case, who does he work for?
The Star Trek fan in me loved the following comments:
JW: “Sanford Harris — The ultimate Red Shirt!!!” – I loved that! So true!
JJ: regarding when he gave the Live Long and Prosper sign: “no that was an adlib (handlib?)” – I think that’s brilliant – it made the scene that much better and added to the numerous Star Trek references!
JP: “Look for more Grayson in season two. He’s gonna be VERRRRRY helpful.” – awesome!
Possible themes or storylines for future episodes:
JP: “(Wait till you see what we do with hiccups this year)” — For some reason that really scares me. They come up with crazy, often gruesome things, so I worry about what they might do with hiccups.
JP: “You know, the aboriginals in Aus believe that the Dreamlife is the Real life, and waking life is the dream. Hmmmm” – Given that we’ve already seen the recurring theme of sleeping and dreaming and confusing it with reality and such, it makes me wonder how prominent that concept is going to be to the story of the show. Maybe they’ll do an episode around that kind of idea?
JP: “Do you ever worry that you will come home and your family will not recognize you??” – another very random idea he threw out there. I wonder if they will visit that thought in a future episode. I bet that would make a really fascinating story!
Other general spoilers:
JJ: In response to “Will we ever get a chance to see what Peter was up to in the middle east? Will we ever get a chance for Peter to head a case?” he said, “Yes and yes” – definitely follows along with what we’ve heard about learning more about Peter’s past and that Peter will take charge more this season.
JW: “Yes, we will find out much about Peter’s mother.” – I have been dying to learn more about her, so that’s great news!
JW: “There will be more about Olivia’s family this season, yes.” – Another topic where I’ve been anxious to see more revealed. So excited!
JP: “Yes, I cannot wait for Olivia to meet alt Olivia” – Me, neither! I bet that will be quite a memorable moment!
JN: “More will be revealed about how Walter lost his memory” – It will be interesting to know what sorts of things were intentionally done to him, and by who, and what kinds of information is now lost to Walter. What was being covered up?
JN: “I just done a scene with Blair! What an actress, and I mean that!” – so we’re finally going to get a scene with Walter and Nina – that’s sure to be brilliant!
JP: “Much more about Walter’s record collection in episode two!” – this is one of those things that I never expected to be very significant, but apparently it is. I’m excited to find out what all is in that collection and why it’s important.
JP: “Hmmm. Is there a lot more going on bt Nina and Broyles than meets the eye?” – Another one that we’ve kind of suspected, but this serves to support those ideas.
JW: “We pick up this season only a few hours after the season finale.” – Another thing that is good to know. I had kind of assumed that at least several days would have passed, but apparently not. I wonder if the show will catch up with “real time” or if there will always be a discrepancy now?
JP: “Yes, some (a lot… hmmm) of next season will take place in the alt universe… maybe WE are the alt universe” – More cryptic comments from JP… I’m excited to see how this plays out and if we’ll be able to distinguish between which reality we’re in at a given time.
JW: “Yes, there will be many more clues embedded in the show this year. Keep a CLOSE eye.” And JP: “Yes, more clues embedded in the show this year!” – I guess we really already could’ve expected that, but it’s still good to have it confirmed.
Other random comments:
JN: “The actor who plays Harris is one of the nicest people you’ve ever met” – How ironic! Isn’t that usually how it goes, though? The actors who play the nice people often (though certainly not always) tend to be not so nice, and the ones who play the evil ones who everyone hates turn out to be the nicest people. Interesting…
JJ: “yes, I did play the piano. Gave myself some grey hairs learning that one.” – Pretty irrelevant to the story, but I thought it was neat to know that he really did play the piano in that episode. Way to go!
JP: “Did you notice the books in the girl’s apt? “Childhood’s End.” Clue?” – I know there was a lot of discussion about the books when the episode first aired, but I don’t recall coming across people focusing much on this specific one. I looked it up and, from what I read, it looks like there are several similarities…
JP: “”He is here” Makes you wonder who HE is.” – so I believe the majority opinion is that “he” refers to William Bell. But this makes me wonder if it’s really so obvious, or if it’s someone else…
JP: “Pinstripe suit always equals evil’” – I’m so definitely going to be keeping an eye out for pinstripe suits from now on!
All considering, I rather enjoyed this experiment. I’m sad that people are reacting so harshly to it, because I had fun learning new things from it!
Like:
0
Thanks for the transcript, mlj!
Like:
0
i’ve been totally weirded out by the negative feedback about this. yes, it had a tendancy to obscure the lower half of the screen and yes the design could have been better, but the added Twitter-feed was the only reason I tuned in! It was totally cool and exciting to have integral members of the show sharing their feedback (and I loved Josh and John’s hilarious-ness). Especially for a show in which much of the audience is technologically capable and DVR’s, downloads etc. the episodes, the Tweat-Peat is one of the best ways to get that portion of the audience watching live!
Like:
0
I was very disappointed to see the twitter mess on the TV screen! It was a major distraction and should have been confined to the online community! For one thing, my wife had never seen Fringe before and was looking forward to the show (me having given her enough background where she could understand what was going on). The twitter junk on the screen just distracted from the story and made it difficult to follow what was going on! Secondly, not all of us online care for twitter and sure don’t want it on the TV!
In the future, leave twitter online for those who like it and don’t mix it up with the TV audience!
Like:
0
Honestly, your assessment – “In general, most viewers are resistant to change” – is an extremely weak supporting point. How does one deduct that ‘generally-speaking’ the Fringe viewers from this weeks Twiiter-gate fiasco are resistant to change. I see that they might be resistant to stupidity, resistant to marketing arrogance, and resistant to enforced social-networking. Along those same lines… I am resistant to shooting myself in the foot, jumping off of skyscrapers and tall bridges, and getting hit/kicked in the groin region. Darest I say – those that were Twiitering during the show WERE NOT WATCHING the show… and those that wanted to watch the show – could not. So, viewers of Fringe are not resistant to change – they are resistant to NOT watching Fringe.
Like:
0
Interesting points.
I should add that I include myself in that statement – I think that, in general, viewers are initially opposed to change. I remember when FOX changed the schedule for Fringe last season, I was against this change as I didn’t want to wait 7 weeks for my next installment – especially since it
seemedwas needless.I think that a similar thing applies with the tweet-peats – a lot of people didn’t want, or weren’t expecting, their screens flooded with text, banter and intrusive boxes – it was a change to their viewing environment.
Whilst I do believe it was a good idea in principle, I can definitely see the flaws. It looks like FOX can aswell, since they have posted a tweet-peat update.
I just think it would be a shame to completely do away with the idea – perhaps we were just unfortunate to experience the rough diamond before it had been polished?
Like:
0
Tom, no offense but shouldn’t you begin watching the show from the very beginning? I am sure you will whine about how none of what is making sense especially with the whole alternative reality thing and the drug trials.
Like:
0
BTW, those people who threatened to not watch the show if this happens again are probably the ones who never ever watched a single episode of fringe or cared about it when it FIRST aired. I’m sorry but you people who didn’t watch the show shouldn’t be whining. You had all year to watch the show and you wait until NOW to watch a rerurn and bitch about the fact there are all these twitters? Again, get over it. It’s over. Go on with your lives.
Like:
0