Mashable released their latest “Social TV” list for both cable and broadcast programs for the week of 10/24-10/30/2011. Through a partnership with Trendrr, the list presents which shows were most buzzed about online, incorporating statistics from Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue and other social platforms.
We’re in an interesting place in pop culture right now.
Never before has pop culture been more about the NOW.
However, never before have we had the ability to time-shift the way we do now.
While the online conversation is real-time, we can easily postpone watching a show by minutes or even months.
This “mixed media” presents some obvious challenges for all parties involved:
1) While you can avoid “spoilers” for shows that haven’t aired yet, how can you possibly avoid conversations about major TV shows after they have aired?
I vividly remember an episode of the tragically-short series “Sports Night” where sports broadcaster Dan Rydell goes to great lengths to avoid knowing the score of a game he wanted to watch in full after his show. This included rewiring the studio, involving a dozen other people and other shenanigans. Naturally, someone who didn’t know about his avoidance tactics told him the final score immediately following the broadcast.
2) You have to choose: be in the NOW or be free.
If you watch a TV show live, you are doing so with millions of other viewers. You can have live chats with other viewers online and over the phone, which builds amazing communities.
Years ago, my wife and I would call people during the commercial breaks of LOST and create a shared viewing experience.
The trade-off is freedom; freedom to set your own schedule, consume media when you want and skip over commercials. You can’t generally have both.
3) Stories play out so differently.
Gone, for many, are the days of the cliffhanger. There was little more exhilarating than seeing your favorite show end in a mystery or with a shocking development – knowing you had to wait a full week for the next chapter in the story. Anticipation would build over the next seven days, allowing word of mouth marketing to get more and more people interested.
Now, you can live-stream entire series, or DVR and store several episodes, watching a season’s worth of stories play out in a lazy weekend on the couch.
We’ve traded anticipation for instant gratification. Not a bad thing, per se, but still a thing.
4) Who wants to be 2000 and late?
As our news/entertainment/meme cycle continues to accelerate, things happening this morning will be even more obsolete by this afternoon. (Dare I say things will appear and move on faster than a Kim Kardashian marriage?)
And with hundreds of channels and hundreds of social platforms, the churning will lead to burning faster than ever.
We have been presented with some of the greatest technology to control our lives and increase productivity, only to see pop culture move more rapidly in response.
On Day 2 of Operation 25, I weighed-in at 204 – a loss of 1 pound!
As my intern, Andrea, so helpfully reminded me, “it’s just water weight.” Thanks, kid. Big encouragement there.
Anyway, in the Operation 25 “story” there are Heroes and Villains.
We’ll talk about Heroes later…I want to talk Villains today.
For these purposes, Villains are anything that gets in your way of healthy living (AKA – weight loss!). I figured I would list some of my Villains and hopefully help rid myself of them and their evil influence.
So…here we go:
10. My Couch – I love it, it loves me. I lay down and instantly fall asleep. I sit down and never want to get up.
9. Five Guys – Damn, you are so frickin’ tasty and affordable. I hate you. I love you. Blah.
8. Victory’s Golden Monkey – By far, my favorite beer. From calories to carbs to alcohol content, there is absolutely nothing light about it.
7. DVR – Times used to be, you’d come home, watch a show or two and go to bed. With DVR technology, I can easily watch a Law & Order: SVU from 2002. And then another. And another. WHY MUST I RECORD THE SERIES???
6. Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream – Since birth, my favorite ice cream brand and flavor.
5. iPhone Alarm Clock Function – Who needs a snooze button when you can set multiple alarms so easily? Not ready to get up at 6am? You can easily set one for 7:30am! And…BAM…there goes your morning workout.
4. Air Conditioning – Yes, the gym is a block away. Less, actually. But that’s several minutes in the summer heat…and I just can’t handle that this time of year.
3. Muscle Soreness – Once you start working out, your muscles are all “WTF? We’re being used!! YAY!! YAY!!! SLOW DOWN, JACKHOLE!” Then you take a few days off and the workout mojo is lost.
2. Chinese Takeout – My #1 lunch indulgence is the Honey Sesame Chicken from the Chinese stand two blocks from the office. At least I walk there and back. Right?
1. Elevators and escalators – Seriously. What other invention stops you from walking up and down a single flight of stairs?
You’ll notice I didn’t link to any brands. On purpose.
What gets in your way of fitness and healthy living?
For the past few years, I’ve done something that many of my friends think is insane: I’ve recorded football games in order to spend quality time with my family. Since the Ravens usually play in the 1pm EST timeslot, timeshifting the game until later in the afternoon has given us some fantastic and productive afternoons. Of course, I won’t pick up my phone or switch on the computer, lest the score be spoiled.
This coming Tuesday night, when LOST returns, I will be at an event. Thus, I’m recording the 3-hour event and watching it when I get home. I won’t be watching it live, but I won’t miss a second.
Timeshifting, thanks to DVR/Tivo, OnDemand, RedBox, iTunes, Hulu and others allows us to absorb media as we wish. No futzing with VCRs like we did in the 1980s and 90s. No long lines at movie rental stores.
This is all well and good. But don’t we lose the communal experience? The watercooler chatter?
How many times have coworkers or friends brought up last night’s big show that you DVRed, but hadn’t seen yet? You either feel 1) Left Out 2) Embarrassed or 3) Livid that they just spoiled the show for you.
I remember, not too long ago, calling friends and familymembers during commercial breaks to discuss what we just saw and hanging up midsentance when the show started back up again. While we may not be watching it sitting next to each other, we were watching it TOGETHER.
So timeshifting is awesome and it’s horrible – or it’s something in between.
My question to you is: Where do you draw the line? What programs MUST you watch live?
I believe you can tell a lot about a person by what TV shows they watch…or record. Here are the shows on my DVR…and you can judge me for yourself!
1. LOST – Best drama on TV.
2. House – Love, love, love this show.
3. Heroes – Former favorite show, but I think it jumped the shark.
4. Real Housewives of New Jersey – The one WITHOUT the rumored mob ties had a mug shot in a book. And she has been engaged 19 times! If you aren’t watching this show, you are missing high-quality entertainment.
5. The Office – Very hit-or-miss, but when it hits, holy mother of pearl!
6. The Soup – The weekly must-see to keep up to speed on trash TV. Joel McHale is the man. CHICKEN TETRAZZINI!
7. Gossip Girl – This is Marisa’s show. All I know is that Lil Jenny is cool…or something.
8. True Blood – Can’t wait for this to come back later this month. It’s a steamy, sexy, scary mystery show wrapped with vampire mythology and hilarious rednecks. Truth be told, if Balki was a girl, he would have been named Sookie Stackhouse Levy Schaffer.
9. Daily Show/Colbert Report – Nightly laugh-fests. I honestly watch about 1/5 of the shows, but they are nice to have, just in case there is nothing on.
10. 30 Rock – Watch for Kenneth
11. Smallville – @mikeschaffer <– Superman fan.
12. American Idol – I got hooked on Season 3. Favorite performance ever on the show:
Second favorite:
13. My Boys – Completely underrated TBS sitcom. Not appointment viewing, but when you want to kill 22 mins on a Saturday, pop it on!
14. Dollhouse – Eliza Dushku’s hotness may not save this show from being axed…
15. Head Case – Completely off-beat show on Starz…Ali Wentworth is a strange lady.
16. Sushi Pack – Saturday morning kids cartoon. It’s terrific…not for kids at all.
17. All WWE and TNA programming – Duh.
So that’s what I’ve got…what’s on your DVR?? Post below!
order to spend quality time with my family. Since the Ravens usually play in the 1pm EST timeslot, timeshifting the game until later in the afternoon has given us some fantastic and productive afternoons. Of course, I won’t pick up my phone or switch on the computer, lest the score be spoiled.
