Stephanie Clark
There
are a few factors that I keep in mind when finding a good show to watch. It has
to have a creative aspect to it, it has to grab and keep my attention from the
beginning, and it has to be somewhat suspenseful. If it doesn’t cause me to
anticipate what will happen next, chances are I won’t watch it. Many television
shows over the years have done a good job at keeping their viewers hooked, and
some shows have failed in that aspect. Gaining an audience can be a challenge,
but one show that certainly gained a loyal audience is AMC’s Breaking Bad, and I had to check it out
for myself.
For those of you who have not seen the
show, it is about a high school chemistry teacher who finds out he has lung
cancer and decides to cook meth in order to provide for his family with the
thought that he may not have much longer to live. After constantly hearing
people talk about how addicting Breaking
Bad is, it was time to see what all the hype was about. I thought to
myself, “how could a show be this popular? How did it gain such a huge
audience?” I eventually watched all 5 seasons of it and now I understand why it
was so popular. It probably took me only a week to finish it because I was so
anxious to find out what happened next.
According to the article by Joal Ryan
titled The Year’s TV Ratings Winners
& Losers, when Breaking Bad
ended this past September, it had around 10.3 million viewers and it started
with 3 million. It was able to gain an audience overtime and its viewers stayed
loyal to the show. So what was their strategy on gaining a following?
First off, the marketing tactics of the
show were on point. There are some shows that can learn a thing or two about
marketing from Breaking Bad. An
article I found by Amanda Batista called 4
Keys to Cooking up Great Marketing Habits From Breaking Bad Creator Vince
Gilligan states that the show is officially on record in the 2014 Guinness
World Records Book as the most critically acclaimed show on television and also
won an Emmy. During an interview, creator Vince Gilligan shared some very
valuable marketing tips. One piece of advice he gave was to treat your content
communications like “teasers” to encourage audience interaction (Batista). “The
teaser is the first 3-5 minutes of the show and it is written to hook the
audience so that you have to watch the rest of it,” Gilligan stated. He also
advised not to get bogged down by the never-ending content gate debate and to
think of ways to innovatively share bite-sized information that gives your
audience a taste of what’s to come. I thought this was excellent advice and I
now know why Gilligan decided to go with the teasers in the beginning of each
episode. It left me obsessed with finding out what happens next in this incredibly
twisted show. Also, because the show aired on AMC, which is a cable channel, it
had the opportunity to be very creative and slowly build its audience over the
show’s run because cable shows don’t rely as much on high ratings like
broadcast shows do.
Although I have yet to see the finale
considering part 2 of season 5 isn’t on Netflix yet, I have heard so many adjectives
to describe it. “Amazing, unpredictable, shocking,” just to name a few. According
to the article, Broadcasters Ambushed By
Hysteria Around ‘Breaking Bad’ Final, the night of the show’s finale seemed
to overtake broadcast TV. NBC’s popular show Saturday Night Live even contributed to Breaking Bad’s hype by
giving it a plug on its season debut. “The creators of ‘Breaking Bad’ are
bringing it, we think, to an exquisite end,” Chief Executive Officer of AMC
Josh Sapan said in an interview. AMC has syndication rights to the program
according to Sapan. Vince Gilligan and production partner Sony Corp. are
already working on a spinoff called Better
Call Saul, about the warped lawyer played by Bob Odenkirk. As the finale
came closer, the show topped researcher Imdb.com’s Movie Meter. It also
generated 1.24 million tweets, the most of any program on TV, according to
Social Guide, the unit of Nielsen that measures social media (Palazzo).
Breaking
Bad has benefitted from word of mouth and critical acclaim. The strategy
for gaining and keeping an audience was genius in my opinion. The show has
merchandise available to purchase including episodes on Blu-ray, which can be
helpful for the people like myself who decided to watch the show after it
aired, and I now feel the Breaking Bad
effect.
Works
Cited
1.
Ryan, Joel. "The Year's TV Ratings Winners and
Losers." Yahoo TV. 17 Dec. 2013. Web.
2.
Batista,
Amanda. "4 Keys to Cooking Up Great Marketing Habits From Breaking Bad
Creator Vince Gilligan." Its All About Revenue The Revenue Marketing
Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
3.
De Moraes, Lisa. "Broadcasters Ambushed By Hysteria Around
‘Breaking Bad’ Finale." Deadline. 30 Sept. 2013. Web.
4.
Finale
Draws Record Viewership on AMC." Bloomberg Luxury. N.p., n.d. Web.
15 Feb. 2014.
I decided to watch Breaking Bad for one reason: all of the tweets I had seen on my Twitter feed. It was all anyone was talking about, so I gave it a try. I quickly realized why this show broke television records.
ReplyDeleteAs you said in your blog, Breaking Bad gave fans a reason to keep watching. It was able to keep such a loyal audience. As mentioned in the article, “The Year’s TV Ratings Winner and Losers 2013,” some television rating “losers” included American Idol and Glee (Ryan). However, when he spoke about Breaking Bad he said, “The AMC meth drama kicked off its fifth and final season as cult-favorite big, with roughly 3 million viewers. When it signed off this past September, it was just plain big (10.3 million viewers) (Ryan). I agree with your questions of why was a show on a cable channel able to keep more viewers than stations like Fox? What did Breaking Bad do that other television shows aren’t able to do?
I think that social media played a huge part in the success of Breaking Bad. In the article, “The Nielsen Family is Dead”, the author wrote, “All of your favorite shows are rating dogs. Breaking Bad...struggles to get a Nielsen score higher than 3…There are two possible conclusions to draw from these facts: All these shows should be canceled or maybe the ratings are measuring the wrong thing…And the TV experience doesn’t stop when the episode ends. We watch with tablets on our laps so we can look up an actor’s IMDb page. We tweet about the latest plot twist. We’re engaging with a show even if we aren’t watching, but none of this behavior factors into Nielsen’s calculation of its impact” (Vanderbilt). Nielsen ratings have been used for years to gauge how many people were watching a television show. However, the media industry is changing. We aren’t watching television the same way we used to in the past. Now, we have DVR, Hulu, Netflix, etc. We watch with another screen on our lap, tweeting everything that happens on our favorite show. We aren’t just watching an episode; we are engaging and communicating with other fans. This might not lead to a top rating by Nielsen standards but it creates a niche family of millions of returning viewers.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteThis past year, Nielsen calculated a Top 10 Twitter list of 2013. “Tops of 2013: TV and Social Media” stated, “AMC’s Breaking Bad…tops the list, with an average of six million people viewing Tweets about each new episode of the program…activity metrics are a measure of relevant Twitter activity from three hours before, during and three hours after an episodes initial broadcast” (“Nielsen Tops of 2013: TV & Social Media”). This number is probably even higher as it doesn’t include viewers on Netflix or DVR. AMC is clearly doing something right, as the number 2 most tweeted about show on this list is it’s other series The Walking Dead. In the article, “Best & Worst 2013: TV’s Biggest Winners and Losers of the Year,” the author said, “AMC’s zombie drama finished out its third season in the spring as the top-rating sow on TV, aside from football. No cable show has every accomplished that before…there’s no escaping the fact that the walkers are devouring TV” (Molloy). The media industry is constantly changing. It is no longer about only trying to get viewers. It has become a race to get a loyal Twitter audience. It is those people that are so enamored with a show that they don’t stop tweeting or making a status on a social media website.
Also said in “Broadcasters Ambushed By Hysteria Around ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale,” “Broadcasters definitely did not anticipate the media hysteria over the Breaking Bad wrapup” (De Moraes). Millions of viewers took to their twitter account to discuss everything that was happening in the season finale. This creates a “buzz” that leads others to want to know what they are missing out on. If I had not seen people tweeting about Breaking Bad, would I have watched it? Probably not. But, now that I have started, the television show has gained another loyal viewer. As everything in the media industry is connected, now that Breaking Bad has the top ratings, advertisers will want to be a part of the craze. AMC will be able to air spin offs and Breaking Bad products. I don’t think Breaking Bad could’ve reached the same ratings without Social Media. This displays how much the media industry is evolving and needing to adapt to new changes. Social media is now a large part of viewing television shows. If you don’t tweet about it, did you even watch it?
De Moraes, Lisa. "Broadcasters Ambushed By Hysteria Around ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale." Deadline. 30 Sept. 2013. Web.
Molloy, Tim, et. al. "Best & Worst 2013: TV’s Biggest Winners and Losers of the Year." The Wrap. 9 Dec. 2013. Web.
“Nielsen Tops of 2013: TV & Social Media.” Nielsen.com. 17 Dec. 2013. Web.
Ryan, Joel. "The Year's TV Ratings Winners and Losers." Yahoo TV. 17 Dec. 2013. Web.
Vanderbilt, Tom. "The Nielsen Family is Dead." Wired. 19 March 2013. Web.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteStephanie,
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued to read your post since I also came into the Breaking Bad fandom late, just after the 4th season was put up on Netflix. I have to say, you’re very lucky you had not been spoiled for the 2nd half of season 5 yet, since even watching the show a day late online spoiled me to a lot of the plot points of the episode.
The Internet, I think, played a big role in how Breaking Bad grew to be so popular. As both of us, and I’m sure many others did, we began watching the show after hearing the buzz online/word of mouth. It’s a no wonder we were both able to be so drawn into the show, as the episodes were all up on Netflix. According to the article by Gardner, Netflix spent billions on content, even more than Amazon, which allows subscribers to have access to a lot of series. Netflix having access to all 4.5 seasons (or 5, if you count season 5 as two seasons), gives those of us who pay the $8 per month subscription fee access to every episode available without paying for individual episodes like on iTunes, or having to find poor quality illegally uploaded streams. Having easy, cheap, commercial free access to previous episodes I think is part of the reason why the series was able to continually grow a fanbase throughout the years it had on air. From personal experience, it also seems like Netflix is relatively quick at uploading content once the season DVDs are released.
Even the Vanderbilt article touches upon how shows that may do poorly in ratings still have a following on Netflix and other content streaming/purchasing sites, though it’s silly to say that Breaking Bad did poorly in ratings, since the last episode even broke 10 million viewers. (Molloy)
DeleteWhat’s also very interesting about the Breaking Bad phenomenon, is that the show is a cable show, airing on AMC. Generally, cables shows do very poorly, but according to “When DVR Dust Settles…”, Breaking Bad was competing in the ratings with the top cable shows, even beating out shows such as Modern Family and The Voice in live viewership. Again, this has to do more so I think with the fact that the Internet buzz in a way prevents people from watching the show on a time delay, or else they risk being spoiled. For instance, the “Best & Worst 2013” article even manages to spoil an aspect of the series finale of Breaking Bad by saying Walt takes down the Nazis. I’m sure I’d have difficulty writing a review without spoiling an aspect of the ending, but reading a spoiler can take away the magic of seeing it for the first time, ‘going in raw’ so to speak. Though it can also be argued that a spoiler so minute doesn’t ruin anything, since it’s more about how he takes down the Nazis, but I can say, as someone who went in without any knowledge about what was going to happen outside of the information that Breaking Bad gave us through the opening teasers in previous episodes, the previous episodes’ content.
Overall I think there were a lot of things that added to the success of the show. It was easy for those of us who came into the game late to catch up due to easy access on Netflix, and the live audience viewership I think also helped AMC open the doors to produce other shows, such as Mad Men, The Walking Dead, and Low Winter Sun, the latter of which seemed to flop though, since it aired right after Breaking Bad, and from what I could tell on my social media, not many people wanted to tune in. Perhaps it was due to wanting to go on message boards/other social media and discuss the episode of Breaking Bad, or simply because the show aired on a Sunday after 9pm, and many members of the target demographics/audience had responsibilities the next morning, though I’m assuming the former reason is much more likely, since not even 10 minutes after each episode would air, I’d be seeing gifs from scenes from said episode on my tumblr dash (and how people managed to convert the video to their computers and gif the scenes in 10 minutes still baffles me to this day).
Interestingly enough, Breaking Bad will also be receiving a spin off series, Better Call Saul, which will a "prequel" be focused on one of my personal favorite characters, Saul Goodman, and will also feature a fan favorite, Mike Ehrmantraut. The original actors will be returning, and other actors from Breaking Bad have also voiced an interest in guest starring on the spin off. (Snierson) And as a fan of the series, I'm definitely looking forward to it!
Works Cited
Gardner, Eriq. "Netflix Gets Wall Street's Silver Medal in 2013." The Hollywood Reporter. 30 Dec. 2013. Web.
Kissell, Rick. "When DVR Dust Settles, Broadcasters Up vs. Last Year in Premiere Week." Variety. 14 Oct. 2013. Web.
Molloy, Tim, et. al. "Best & Worst 2013: TV’s Biggest Winners and Losers of the Year." The Wrap. 9 Dec. 2013. Web.
Snierson, Dan. "'Better Call Saul': Jonathan Banks Joins 'Breaking Bad' Spin-off."EW.com. Entertainment Weekly, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Vanderbilt, Tom. "The Nielsen Family is Dead." Wired. 19 March 2013. Web.
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteLet me start by saying how great of a topic you chose. Personally, I think BreakingBad is one of the best shows to ever be aired on television. I am not exactly sure how long the show has actually been airing but I know plenty of people who have followed it from the very beginning. Unfortunately, I am not one f those people. I have always heard of the show and knew it was good but never took the time to sit down and really take the time to watch it and see what the hype was all about until this past fall. During the early weeks of the fall semester, A couple of my roommates couldn't stop talking about how close the show was to its ending and how they wished so much that AMC would have another season. This got my intrigued and got me into the conversation. From there, I scampered up to my room and threw on episode one and the rest is history. It took me just around two weeks to finish all 5 seasons of the show and finished all of the previous episodes right in time for the final episode.
The show is the perfect type of show for a person like me. Just like you said in your blog, I need a show that's going to keep me on my toes, grab my attention, keep my attention, and keep me anticipating for what might be coming next and Breaking Bad did this perfectly. This made for a pretty large audience which reached up to around 10.3 million but I think whats most important was that, those 10.3 million weren't just watching the final episode because it was what everyone was talking about, those 10.3 million were loyal followers who were there in the beginning. On another side of the discussion, I think social media was a big factor in the number of followers over the seasons. Other than hearing my roommates talk about it all the time, I saw tons of tweets and Facebook posts about it all the time which also had a factor which drew me in. In Nielsons "Tops of 2013: TV and Social Media" they calculated a Top 10 Twitter list of 2013 where, "AMC’s Breaking Bad…tops the list, with an average of six million people viewing Tweets about each new episode of the program…activity metrics are a measure of relevant Twitter activity from three hours before, during and three hours after an episodes initial broadcast” (“Nielsen Tops of 2013: TV & Social Media”). I watched the show through Netflix and Nielson did not count that so those numbers are probably even higher. If there was not as much Twitter buzz around the show as there was, who knows how many people would of never watched the show. I also found another good point that was brought up in "Broadcasters Ambushed By Hysteria Around 'Breaking Bad' Finale," that, “Broadcasters definitely did not anticipate the media hysteria over the Breaking Bad wrap up” (De Moraes). This is extremely sup rising to me just in the fact that broadcasters among all people were not expecting this sort of buzz to start.
What I found most exciting about your blog was the spin off series, 'Better Call Saul' which is considered a "prequel" to 'Breaking Bad'. The show is going to focus on a favorite of many fans, Saul Goodman. Many of the original actors from 'Breaking Bad' will be returning as well. (Snierson)
I was very impressed with your blog and I learned a lot more about the show then I did before. Can't wait to see the prequel!
Works Cited
ReplyDelete“Nielsen Tops of 2013: TV & Social Media.” Nielsen.com. 17 Dec. 2013. Web.
De Moraes, Lisa. "Broadcasters Ambushed By Hysteria Around ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale." Deadline. 30 Sept. 2013. Web.
Snierson, Dan. "'Better Call Saul': Jonathan Banks Joins 'Breaking Bad' Spin-off."EW.com. Entertainment Weekly, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
ReplyDeleteStephanie,
First, I want to start off by saying that you and me are both in the same “lab” with waiting for Netflix to release the second part of season 5 for the finale. I have currently canceled my Netflix in the mean time because it is too much of a distraction. I am so tempted to just buy it on Blu-ray or Amazon almost every weekend but then I find a little bit of self control and tell myself not to because I will fail my weeks worth of homework. Both Netflix and Amazon are very tempting places to spend your money. I personally like Netflix better just because you can pay monthly and then cancel when ever and on amazon you have to physically purchase it and then wait for it in the mail. What that comes down to is that I am a very impatient person. The article Netflix Gets Wall Streets Sliver Medial backs up my personal issues and is probably why Netflix right now is spending 2.7 million on content and that is more then twice as much as Amazon. They are competitors for my wallet as well.
I started the series right when it began to air on AMC but I can honestly say that it made me very sad and almost depressed because it was SO real life. For a father, and teacher to go down that path in life with a family it was hard for me to continue the season. Once all my teammates and family from home kept watching and talking about it I was in a dilemma. I stopped watching it so I was no longer in the loop. I feel that I missed out on the experience of a “life time” to connect with not just 3 million people when I started the series but now 10 million people around the world throw a television show about a meth lab stated in the article, The Year’s TV Ratings Winners & Losers. What is our world coming to!
With the high numbers of viewers I was very interested into seeing what the broadcasting network television stations would do and how it all would fall into place. As Stephanie has stated that NBC’s popular show Saturday Night Live even made a contribution to the show but truly I feel that all their stats and ratings struggled against and with nail biting, corrupt drug selling teachers TV series like Breaking Bad. The same article, The Outlook For Broadcast Networks talking about ABC, FOX, CBS, and NBC the top four broadcast networks today are struggling but they still find a way to survive through many different media outlets by amassing viewers through new distribution channels.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteThis article also looks into the short-term outlook in the past years as well. There are all different age groups and different breakdowns on the others shows and how the current and freshman series are very promising. The summary given from this same article The Outlook For Broadcast Networks says, the new competition in the distribution sector is heating up. This has already increased the value of those must-have broadcast network programs and will continue to do so.
As a result, the broadcast networks are substantially increasing their revenues from retransmission fees for the existing cable, satellite and teleco distributors and entering into new revenue- generating arrangements with the new distributors such as Netflix and Amazon. And there is clearly more to come from and with audience, advertisers and lastly subscribers.
Gardner, Eriq. "Netflix Gets Wall Street's Silver Medal in 2013." The Hollywood Reporter. 30 Dec. 2013.
Poltrack, David. "The Outlook for the Broadcast Networks (Powerpoint)." 2011 UBS 39th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference. 5 December 2011.
Ryan, Joel. "The Year's TV Ratings Winners and Losers." Yahoo TV. 17 Dec. 2013. Web.
I completely agree with you and the things that you look for in a television show to watch and to keep you coming back for more. With myself being one of the many die-hard Breaking Bad fans, there is no question that this show encompasses the three factors you pointed out. I was also just like you and started the show after everyone else had been watching it since it began and had to catch up on the five seasons. In order to do so I used Netflix to watch all 5 season that had already been out. You beat me in how fast you watched all five seasons because it took be roughly a month to finish all. If it wasn't for Netflix I most likely wouldn't have been able to catch up and have access to the show as easily as I did. “The company's stock surged 296 percent this past year, which, according to a review by The Wall Street Journal, made Netflix the second best performing U.S. stock (Gardner 1).” This can explain why most people I talk to say that they have watched Breaking Bad on Netflix who had to catch up on the show like myself of the within’ the past year. From a consumer stand point I see Netflix primarily as a source used for to get access to any almost any television series that has passed.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading your response regarding Breaking Bad and its incredible success as a television series, I never really at I’s looked at the show’s success from a communications or marketing stand point. I always just thought the show’s content and natural ability to make its viewers come back for more was how it kept a consistently rowing fan base. But, when you point out the numbers of the show growing from 3 million viewers to massive 10.5 million viewers, there has to be some secret to that success. When I used to watch the show I was always aware of the teasers but never took the time to realize how effective they truly were in keeping my attention and interest in the show. Looking back to when I was watching the show, I now notice the effectiveness of these teasers. By presenting the viewer with pieces of information about the episode ahead and then abruptly ending it with a cliff hanger, that right there is enough to lock in any viewer. I can see how this tactic had some profound influence on the growth of viewers.
Besides the positive feedback the show got from its viewers, broadcasters of other television series that were aired during the same time dint like Breaking Bad very much. Other channels took a profound hit in viewers. An article from 2013 stated that it “sucks to be CBS, which aired the trophy show that launched AMC’s monster Breaking Bad marketing campaign that did so much to send CBS’ Premiere Week Sunday into double-digit declines in the ratings (De Moraes 1).” Breaking Bad seemed to be the heavyweight champion of its generation of shows and I can why other shows dreaded to be on at the same time. Overall, Breaking Bad was a show like no other due for a number of apparent reasons after reading this post. The combination of its infectiously intriguing plot line that was undeniable to resist and the teasers that kept you wanting more were the perfect combination to beat any other show that came its way. I truly loved watching the series and I can very well see it going down as my favorite show all time. If you haven’t watched the last season yet you will be in for quiet the shock. Your post really opened up my eyes to the statistics of its success and I enjoyed reading your post.
Works Cited
1. De Moraes, Lisa. "Broadcasters Ambushed By Hysteria Around ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale." Deadline. 30 Sept. 2013. Web.
2. Gardner, Eriq, “Netflix Gets Wall Street’s Silver Medal in 2013.”
The Hollywood Reporter. 30 Dec. 2013. Web.