Last Wednesday, Ryan Seacrest used his Twitter feed to reveal the results of that night’s American Idol before the show had aired on the west coast. The result was a bunch of irritated fans and the lowest-rated result episode in the show’s history. (link to story at Perez Hilton) The results are available online, sure, but Seacrest ending up sending the results to dedicated fans who didn’t necessarily want to know yet. Couple of reactions – first, how self-serving is this? Seacrest is trying to create buzz on his own Twitter feed at the expense of the show. I think that’s called biting the hand that feeds you.
Also, it’s a bit of gray area. It’s good for the show to have celebs like Seacrest tweeting to create buzz, but then, when they go rogue, it can hurt as well. It’s a classic example of old media vs. new. The new medium doesn’t play by the same rules, and the old medium has yet to figure out how to deal with it.
As for the fans who were so upset, I understand that they feel like they got cheated (and by one of the show’s stars), but seriously – it’s just a TV show. The people who really got burned were the advertisers. They paid top dollar for those viewers that Seacrest stole.
No comments:
Post a Comment