Posted:
The Few, The Fervent: Fans Of
'Supernatural' Redefine TV Success
link:
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/15/262092791/the-few-the-fervent-fans-of-supernatural-redefine-tv-success
content:
How do you measure love?
OK, it's a huge question. And maybe
not one generally applied to
television. But the metrics of success
determine whether a television show
lives or dies. (If this is the sort of
topic that seems frivolous, consider
the billions of dollars TV and other
copyright industries contribute to the
U.S. economy. The stakes start
feeling higher.)
#Supernatural is a religion/
lifestyle. Truer words have
never been spoken.
pic.twitter.com/eh1VQhXSUp
" Captain Sexy (@_Sassy_
Cassy_) January 7, 2014
And this is why we're looking at the
CW show Supernatural. Unlike a
massively popular scripted TV show
like The Big Bang Theory or The
Walking Dead, it has only about 3
million viewers. Its Nielsen ratings
are, frankly, not that great. Yet
Supernatural has lasted for nine
seasons (so far), partly because its
fan base makes up in engagement
what it lacks in size. Supernatural
has almost as many "likes" on
Facebook as NCIS, a show with an
audience six times larger.
That Supernatural's leads are two
preternaturally handsome young men,
of course, doesn't hurt. They're
blogged about on Tumblr more than
almost any other actor except for
Benedict Cumberbatch. But it takes
more than sex appeal to achieve
such fan activation. Fans appreciate
the show's complicated plotting, its
rich world of details and its
unanswered questions. That's all
fodder to argue about on message
boards and explore in fan fiction.
What kind of powers does a fallen
angel have? What were the main
characters like as children? Is a sexy
demon a good sexy demon or a bad
sexy demon?
Supernatural is the second most
popular TV show on fan fiction's
biggest website . And Supernatural
fan fiction has been penned by no
less of a literary personage than S.E.
Hinton , who's much better known for
authoring classic young adult novels,
including The Outsiders and That
Was Then, This Is Now. She enjoys
fan fiction's anonymity, so she
refused to offer any clues about how
to find hers.
"If you come across one that's just
really good, that's mine," she told
NPR.
Now, it's not unusual for fans to
write fiction about their favorite TV
shows. It's very unusual for TV
shows to write scripts about their
fans. Supernatural's writers
intentionally incorporate the show's
fandom back into the program's plot.
So in the show, there's a series of
books, called Supernatural, based on
the adventures of the main
characters. The Supernatural books
have fans ... on the show,
Supernatural. Those fictional fans
hold Supernatural fan conventions,
where they dress up as the main
characters on the show ... while
interacting with the characters on the
show. Obviously, it gets staggeringly
meta.
" Supernatural takes it to a whole
other level," says Lynn S. Zubernis, a
psychologist, professor and co-
author of Fangasm , a book about
Supernatural fans. "The sort of
reflexive dialogue it has going on
with its fandom."
Zubernis says Supernatural even
dares to gesture toward slash fiction
" the sort of fan fiction, usually
written by women, that imagines a
homoerotic relationship between a
show's male characters. (On
Supernatural, that's especially
loaded. The characters are brothers
whose last name is Winchester, so
this kind of slash is called "Wincest"
by fans. And it's probably why
Supernatural's publicists did not
return any of my emails seeking
comments by the show's writers
about fan engagement.)
This kind of dialogue between show
and fan might seem novel, says
English professor Katherine Larsen,
the other author of Fangasm . But
look back through literature, she
suggests. Great stories have always
inspired a powerful sense of
ownership from enthusiastic fans.
"Charles Dickens changes the end of
Great Expectations because the fans
were not happy," she offers as
example. And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
had to resurrect Sherlock Holmes in
the face of fan outrage after their
beloved detective died.
"So fans have had this kind of power
for longer than we've had a really
good sense of them having that
power," she says.
East-coasters, how was #
supernatural? Is it just me or is
the guy in the trench coat a
little off? Alluring, but poorly
socialized.
" Misha Collins (@
mishacollins) January 15, 2014
Misha Collins plays the fallen angel
Castiel on Supernatural. His self-
deprecating tweets about the show
are often even more popular than this
one.
But how can that power serve a TV
show " economically " today? Mike
Proulx is a marketing
communications executive and the
co-author of a book called Social
Media: How Marketers Can Reach
and Engage Audiences by Connecting
Television to the Web
. He sees Supernatural as an
intriguing test case.
"Nielsen has done a lot of research
as to whether social media is helping
people to tune in to TV," he says,
noting that a show's traction on
Twitter and Tumblr is starting to
affect how networks pitch shows to
the all-important advertisers.
"They're no longer just including
Nielsen ratings. They're also
including social TV data."
ps-i wud have posted it in supernatural news corner but noone visits those threads so thot of sharing in main forumđł..enjoy reading...its amazing to read that spn has such dedicated fandom
'Supernatural' Redefine TV Success
link:
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/15/262092791/the-few-the-fervent-fans-of-supernatural-redefine-tv-success
content:
How do you measure love?
OK, it's a huge question. And maybe
not one generally applied to
television. But the metrics of success
determine whether a television show
lives or dies. (If this is the sort of
topic that seems frivolous, consider
the billions of dollars TV and other
copyright industries contribute to the
U.S. economy. The stakes start
feeling higher.)
#Supernatural is a religion/
lifestyle. Truer words have
never been spoken.
pic.twitter.com/eh1VQhXSUp
" Captain Sexy (@_Sassy_
Cassy_) January 7, 2014
And this is why we're looking at the
CW show Supernatural. Unlike a
massively popular scripted TV show
like The Big Bang Theory or The
Walking Dead, it has only about 3
million viewers. Its Nielsen ratings
are, frankly, not that great. Yet
Supernatural has lasted for nine
seasons (so far), partly because its
fan base makes up in engagement
what it lacks in size. Supernatural
has almost as many "likes" on
Facebook as NCIS, a show with an
audience six times larger.
That Supernatural's leads are two
preternaturally handsome young men,
of course, doesn't hurt. They're
blogged about on Tumblr more than
almost any other actor except for
Benedict Cumberbatch. But it takes
more than sex appeal to achieve
such fan activation. Fans appreciate
the show's complicated plotting, its
rich world of details and its
unanswered questions. That's all
fodder to argue about on message
boards and explore in fan fiction.
What kind of powers does a fallen
angel have? What were the main
characters like as children? Is a sexy
demon a good sexy demon or a bad
sexy demon?
Supernatural is the second most
popular TV show on fan fiction's
biggest website . And Supernatural
fan fiction has been penned by no
less of a literary personage than S.E.
Hinton , who's much better known for
authoring classic young adult novels,
including The Outsiders and That
Was Then, This Is Now. She enjoys
fan fiction's anonymity, so she
refused to offer any clues about how
to find hers.
"If you come across one that's just
really good, that's mine," she told
NPR.
Now, it's not unusual for fans to
write fiction about their favorite TV
shows. It's very unusual for TV
shows to write scripts about their
fans. Supernatural's writers
intentionally incorporate the show's
fandom back into the program's plot.
So in the show, there's a series of
books, called Supernatural, based on
the adventures of the main
characters. The Supernatural books
have fans ... on the show,
Supernatural. Those fictional fans
hold Supernatural fan conventions,
where they dress up as the main
characters on the show ... while
interacting with the characters on the
show. Obviously, it gets staggeringly
meta.
" Supernatural takes it to a whole
other level," says Lynn S. Zubernis, a
psychologist, professor and co-
author of Fangasm , a book about
Supernatural fans. "The sort of
reflexive dialogue it has going on
with its fandom."
Zubernis says Supernatural even
dares to gesture toward slash fiction
" the sort of fan fiction, usually
written by women, that imagines a
homoerotic relationship between a
show's male characters. (On
Supernatural, that's especially
loaded. The characters are brothers
whose last name is Winchester, so
this kind of slash is called "Wincest"
by fans. And it's probably why
Supernatural's publicists did not
return any of my emails seeking
comments by the show's writers
about fan engagement.)
This kind of dialogue between show
and fan might seem novel, says
English professor Katherine Larsen,
the other author of Fangasm . But
look back through literature, she
suggests. Great stories have always
inspired a powerful sense of
ownership from enthusiastic fans.
"Charles Dickens changes the end of
Great Expectations because the fans
were not happy," she offers as
example. And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
had to resurrect Sherlock Holmes in
the face of fan outrage after their
beloved detective died.
"So fans have had this kind of power
for longer than we've had a really
good sense of them having that
power," she says.
East-coasters, how was #
supernatural? Is it just me or is
the guy in the trench coat a
little off? Alluring, but poorly
socialized.
" Misha Collins (@
mishacollins) January 15, 2014
Misha Collins plays the fallen angel
Castiel on Supernatural. His self-
deprecating tweets about the show
are often even more popular than this
one.
But how can that power serve a TV
show " economically " today? Mike
Proulx is a marketing
communications executive and the
co-author of a book called Social
Media: How Marketers Can Reach
and Engage Audiences by Connecting
Television to the Web
. He sees Supernatural as an
intriguing test case.
"Nielsen has done a lot of research
as to whether social media is helping
people to tune in to TV," he says,
noting that a show's traction on
Twitter and Tumblr is starting to
affect how networks pitch shows to
the all-important advertisers.
"They're no longer just including
Nielsen ratings. They're also
including social TV data."
ps-i wud have posted it in supernatural news corner but noone visits those threads so thot of sharing in main forumđł..enjoy reading...its amazing to read that spn has such dedicated fandom
Mangal Lakshmi
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
