How social media can save your favorite canceled show

Using social media has become the new way to save your favorite show after it was canceled. Fan campaigns helped save canceled shows like Lucifer, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and more shows.

With the recent outrage over canceled shows, viewers are left wondering what more they can do to save their favorite canceled show.

Fan-favorite shows that are canceled prematurely is not a recent problem. You can look back through history to find multiple examples of great shows canceled before their time. Firefly, Freak and Geeks, and Terriers are just a few of the” canceled too soon” casualties.

If you hang out on social media sites, you have likely seen #Save(InsertShowHere) at some point. Recently, I have witnessed this tactic used for Timeless, Whiskey Cavalier, Santa Clarita Diet, Swamp Thing, and now Chambers. All these campaigns, (except for Chambers which is TBD) have failed in reviving these series on a different platform.

These campaigns are not always failures. Recently, we have seen success with Lucifer, Designated Survivor, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. All received revivals on different platforms. So, what made these campaigns successful where others have failed? In short, these shows (minus Designated Survivor) already had a built-in social media presence.

So, what does “built-in social media presence” mean? Well, in short, it means the people who watched these shows actively supported them on social media.

Lucifer, for example, would regularly have live tweets with the cast and writers. The CW shows are excellent at doing this. Look at the ratings of The Flash, Arrow, Riverdale and Supergirl, then look at the action they generate on social media during the broadcast. What these shows lack in ratings, they are making up for with public interaction.

Will public interaction always save your favorite new show? Sadly, no.

While the times are changing with how we consume content, the networks still view ratings as the home-run hitter. However, that’s where we the fans come in.

We, as fans, are the first to yell from the highest mountain when we do not like something. Although, most of us rarely shout about the things we love. If we want to save the shows we love, we need to speak up and be vocal about it.

If you Tweet, use #(TheShow) in your tweets. If you use Instagram or Facebook tag the show you love in your posts, we cannot continue waiting until our favorite show is on the bubble or has already been canceled to voice our support.

Unfortunately, doing this doesn’t guarantee any show’s survival. However, I do believe it will give some shows a fighting chance. As fans, that’s all we can ask.