Moonlight Fans Try to Save Show

Fans of CBS' horror series, Moonlight, are making great sacrifices to save their show:

Teaming with the Red Cross and networking through YouChoose.net, fans have agreed to donate one pint of blood each to save the show. According to them, there are over 3000 promised donations already lined-up. Star of the show, Alex O'Loughlin, was so moved by the effort that he has become a spokesperson for the Red Cross.

The newsworthy thing is that Moonlight, while no ratings bulldozer, isn't in trouble of cancellation; it is considered very likely to be picked up for another season and still has more episodes to run for this one (starting April 25^th)! YouChoose got me to sign-up for a "Save Supernatural" campaign a week or two before I got the PR from CW, noting that the show was not only renewed, but that it is one of their highest-rated series. Unfortunately, the news didn't arrive soon enough to save my mailbox from constant "Add YouChoose Widgets to Facebook" and similar e-mails.

Obviously, YouChoose.net is simply using this "Save Our Show" routine as a dishonest advertising racket - and it's apparently working. But I hope it backfires on them; while the concept behind YouChoose is good and fans need something like it to organize and bolster their efforts, this is a really ugly way to boost their membership and hits.

This might also backfire for fans: CBS just canceled Jericho after a fan-drive of peanuts brought it back - and fans of the sci-fi series, 4400, started a similar campaign using sunflower seeds which seems to have petered-out. Executives just might find this latest effort too much to bear and give Moonlight the axe just because they can! But that's doubtful; TV executives will do literally anything to make money, so if the show isn't tanking and fans are vocal in their continued support, Moonlight has a good chance of a second season.

This whole "campaigning" fad needs to stop. If fans knew more about the industry, they'd be focusing their attention on getting the TV executives the hell out of their respective offices instead of packing nuts and spilling blood! These Ivy League bean-counters just do not grasp the concept of "new media" and emerging technology and they are dead-set against learning about it.

Almost as many fans who watched Jericho during its scheduled time said they TiVo the program to watch it later, yet execs did not include these numbers in their ratings profile when deciding whether or not to renew the series. Further, they could not buy better advertising than that campaign brought them, and had they left the show on for another season or two - even in a "dead" slot - Jericho could very well have become one of the longest-running shows on the network! In fact, several of the highest-rated and longest-running TV series in history started out with low ratings, such as Cheers, and Jericho definitely had a strong, vociferous fanbase.

The long and short of it is that TV executives realize they are losing control and have stuck their collective head in the sand - which is only slightly better than the hole in which they previously kept it. A similar thing happened in the comics industry in the 1990s, when many of the top-talent artists and creators working at The Big Two split and created their own company, Image. While Image failed to deliver on their promises and eventually became just another publishing house, the industry was forever changed and the effects are still making ripples today.

The Internet has completely changed media distribution forever and those in power simply do not know enough about it to change their ways - further, they simply refuse to! While it is understandable that they don't want to jump headlong into the middle of the Information Superhighway, it's ludicrous for them to put on their blinders and charge, full-steam, down the same beaten paths they've traveled for the past 50+ years. Add to this the cable TV revolution - any number of subscription outlets may pick-up Jericho, Moonlight, or any other canceled series at any time and continue producing it - and you start to understand why the TV executives' position on this, and other, matters has resulted in so much friction between them and workers, creators, fans - literally everyone - even those who aren't in the industry!

TV executives can either get with the program or, like so many times before, be left behind - but either way, the distribution methods have changed and seeing as how "content is king" online and "distribution is king" in television, they'd better pull their heads out of whichever hole they're hiding it in this time and see what the hell is going on in the real world. They have the means to produce quality content and distribute it online, but they refuse to do so because they don't know how and they are too damned greedy to take the temporary pay-cut necessary to learn.

Still, this "seeds" and "nuts" campaigning fad is going to quickly be rejected by execs after they bumbled the whole Jericho effort, so I'm telling you: stop it now before you wind up really making a mess of things!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008