‘Scandal,’ the show that Twitter built, bows out
LOS ANGELES: ABC’s primetime political soap Scandal launched mid-season with little fanfare in the spring of 2012, to tepid reviews and disappointing ratings.
Following the exploits of Emmy-nominated Kerry Washington as Washington, DC crisis manager Olivia Pope and her team of problem-solving “gladiators,” the show didn’t immediately take off and it looked destined to be strangled at birth.
As it nears its finale six years on, however, it bows out as a bona fide hit that changed the way we watch TV, ushering in the era of live-tweeting shows, known as “double-screening.”
Its army of vocal Twitter fans, who also call themselves “gladiators,” helped ratings for Scandal soar more than 50 per cent to 12.7 million an episode by 2014.
Much of its success was driven by the goodwill it engendered as an intriguing Washington, DC political story of sex, murder and double-dealing starring a strong black female character.
But its pioneering showrunner, Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, has been credited with the insight that stars and producers live-tweeting episodes along with fans makes a
Gladiators: Scandal would not have the opportunity to be on magazine covers without all of you watching. Thank you for making it happen! Shonda Rhimes, producer
difference in ratings.
From the earliest days, she would diligently connect with her Twitter followers, who have expanded during the show’s lifetime from 350,000 to 1.7 million.
“Gladiators: Scandal would not have the opportunity to be on magazine covers without all of you watching. Thank you for making it happen!” she would tweet, giving fans a feeling of belonging that they’d never had before.
Rhimes would offer personal insights into production and the scriptwriting process and, most importantly, rope in the cast to post their own thoughts in realtime.
It is a common tactic these days but no one was really doing it -certainly on a regular, reliable basis -- before Rhimes.
By the second season, Scandal was drawing 119,000 tweets per episode and ratings began to climb, particularly among the millennial age group that advertisers covet.
The show is in its final run of 11 episodes after returning last week from a mid-season break and finishes for good on Apr 19.
Tony Goldwyn, who plays ex-president Fitzgerald “Fitz” Grant, Pope’s longtime love interest, told journalists at a recent set visit in Hollywood how the cast had embraced Rhimes’ ground-breaking strategy.
“It completely transformed my perception of social media. I was very sceptical and judgmental about it, and just thought... it was irrelevant to me,” said Goldwyn (Ghost, The Belko Experiment).