Category Archives: celebrity

Social media: driving up award show ratings?

Written on March 12, 2010 by Stephanie in Facebook, Twitter, celebrity, news, social media
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Photo credit: Oscar.com

More than 41.3 million people tuned in to the Academy Awards Sunday night, despite advance media coverage calling the Oscar race predictable (and laying all the gold statuettes at the big blue feet of Avatar).  That’s the biggest audience since 2005. (Million Dollar Baby was the big winner that night.)

So the Oscar audience was up. Know what else?

  • The Golden Globe Awards were up 14% from the previous year.
  • The People’s Choice Awards were up 15%.
  • The Grammy Awards were up 35.8% over last year.

It’s not just awards shows. The 2010 Super Bowl garnered 106 million viewers — becoming the most-watched event in TV history. While this article quotes media experts saying the bad economy keeps more people at home and the productions have gotten better, I don’t think that has changed viewership.

While television executives have blamed the internet for fragmenting audiences, I think the internet plus laptops plus smartphones is bringing them together. Hello! Social media.  We’re connecting via portable technology.

A few years ago we put our big clunky computer desktops in a spare bedroom or a home office — a room that usually didn’t have a television. But now we’re surfing and tweeting and facebooking on our laptops or BlackBerries or iPhones in our living rooms, dens or bedrooms and it’s like being at an Oscar party, a Grammy party or a Super Bowl party.

You want to hear what your snarky friend is saying about SJP’s hair or gown, or praise Jeff Bridges’ heartfelt, yet groovy, man speech. You might have tweeted “Imma let you finish” when that redhaired woman pulled a Kanye during  the Music by Prudence documentary producer’s speech. (Turns out she produced it too.) And you might even admit that you both laughed and got a little misty during Sandra Bullock’s acceptance speech.

I did. I tweeted during many of these shows and talked about the rest of them on Facebook.  I’ve watched these shows in years past –sometimes they were on in the background while I put together an 11pm newscast that followed. (What do you MEAN the show is running over?!!!)  Other times, before kids, I had seen several nominated movies and wondered why I hadn’t seen the others — so I tuned in to see what video I should rent in the future.  (Side note: as a mom with two daughters, I can accurately predict the animated feature winner every year, having seen the entire category and then some. The one year I got it wrong: Happy Feet.)

So I suggest this pop culture crowdsourcing is driving up awards show ratings. In an age when we feel comfortable talking about every little opinion on Twitter or Facebook, check in to be the mayor of our local Starbucks on Foursquare or write blog posts like this one, being a part of the conversation in real time is almost as good as being at a party or the event itself.

Do you find yourself watching an awards show, or even your favorite series logged in to your favorite social media site to chat about the program? Do you think it’s just the bad economy keeping people glued to their TVs? Or have the productions become better? (Seriously? I mean, there was an homage to horror movies during the Academy Awards this year people!)

Tell me what you think is driving up ratings. I’d love to chat with you about it. Until Grey’s Anatomy comes on and then I’m talking about Bailey’s big date.

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Will the Olympics in Canada Make Us Forget NBC’s PR Faux Pas?

Written on January 29, 2010 by Stephanie in Olympics, PR, Technology; twitter, celebrity, news, public relations
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‘If you work really, really hard, and you’re kind… Amazing things will happen to you.’ — Conan O’Brien

With grace and dignity, Conan O’Brien left The Tonight Show after just 7 months on the air. Short enough and memorable enough to be re-tweeted, the quote at the top of the post became a trending topic on Twitter. Between speeches like this and his remarkable public statement about not accepting a later time slot, O’Brien won the hearts of many who probably wished they had watched his show more and given him the kind of ratings that could have kept him on the air. Regardless, despite being handed a bitter pill by executives at NBC, Conan either is genuinely that nice or that smart or has really good PR folks giving him advice that he actually follows.

Now, NBC on the other hand, apparently could have used more PR advice or more willingness to listen to any good advice that was given. Facing revolt from affiliates who were losing money hand over fist during their late local newscasts deprived of a good lead-in from the experimental Jay Leno show at 10:00PM, involved in a merger with Comcast, and watching The Tonight Show lose to Late Night with David Letterman, NBC had a crisis on its hands.  Wrap all this up with the new media landscape — advertising rates plummeting, profit margins dwindling and the internet further fracturing the viewership that cable cracked in the 80s — and you can see why NBC panicked. But panic never makes for a clear head or the best method to handle a tricky situation.

What happened to Conan O’Brien has been happening to local newscasters for years, and precipitously so in the last few years as media conglomerates own more and more stations. I have known some fine anchors and reporters who worked hard, did a good job and were loved by audiences. But they may have had too much longevity, too high a salary or were taken for granted by a hastily-convened focus group whose answers apparently represented the feelings of everyone in the market. Some of these fine broadcasters are still working in the biz, while others have left for greener pastures and more sane hours.

Regardless, onward come the Olympics — a few weeks of amazing accomplishments, highly-packaged athlete backstories, plus all the glitter and sequins the ice skaters and ice dancers can fit on a few yards of spandex. (Confession: I love ice skating. It’s probably a side effect of growing up in the iceless South.) I cry at least once during the Olympics. I’m just sentimental that way. But what I don’t know is if America’s heartstrings will be played so adeptly that we will forget the underdog we rooted for in Conan O’Brien, the soundbites from NBC execs who called names during the fracas or how we remembered that this wasn’t the first time Jay Leno found himself in a fight over The Tonight Show.

Does time really heal all wounds? Will watching the Olympics take over late night make you less likely to hold a grudge? Or are you just tired of the whole thing and OVER IT already?

Talking to fill the silence

Written on August 12, 2009 by Stephanie in celebrity, media relations, tips
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If you’ve ever been interviewed by a journalist, you may have experienced a tactic designed to keep you talking. You’re answering, you’re answering, you finish — and silence. The other guy doesn’t say anything, doesn’t ask the next question, just looks at you expectantly. So you start answering again. And maybe putting your foot in your mouth.

That’s talking to fill the silence. Don’t fall for it. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book.

How I wish some folks caught in the media glare would get that: Jon and Kate Gosselin, SC Gov. Mark Sanford, maybe even Katherine Heigl. I’m talking about you. There comes a time when the rest of us just do not need to know anything else about your personal lives.

Honest.

But there may come a time when your company or organization faces this interview tactic. Remember, answer the question and then stop. Here are some other tips for facing the media:

  • Don’t blame
  • Don’t repeat a negative
  • Don’t volunteer tough topics, especially when you don’t really know the answer

To be fair, the Gosselins and Katherine Heigl are considered to be celebrities and their representatives apparently believe in the old adage “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. Their tendency to spill is most likely less about being caught by an interview trick and more about the quest for fame.

And your organization probably isn’t raising sextuplets and divorcing, mysteriously disappearing from important governmental duties or starring in a summer movie. So you don’t have to talk about those things.

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