Best Save Our Show Campaigns

[WyldeMan45]

Some of them have worked and some haven't, I picked my 2 favorite Save Our Show campaigns over the last couple years. Unfortunately the Cloud Watchers campaign didn't work, but Save Chuck did. What where your favorites?

Veronica Mars: Attracted a loyal and dedicated fan base which includes internet communities. A group of fans calling themselves the "Cloud Watchers" organized several campaigns to bring more viewers to the series to ensure its continuation. The group hired a plane to fly over the CW offices, carrying a banner reading "Renew Veronica Mars." The group hired street teams in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago to distribute 30,000 fliers advertising the series' return after its midseason hiatus in the third season. The "Cloud Watchers" raised $50,000 in donations and through the sale of Veronica Mars clothing and swag. Upon the cancellation of the series, fans sent more than 10,000 Mars Bars to the CW, hoping that the network would reverse its decision and renew the series. Rob Thomas thanked the fans of the series for their efforts, saying "I love those people and they have been so good to me, but it's not going to happen."

Chuck: Fans launched a "Save Chuck" campaign that gained momentum with the use of social-networking websites like Twitter and Facebook. Fansite ChuckTV.net launched the first organized fan effort, the Watch/Buy/Share campaign, on March 18, 2009; a letter writing campaign was later added to the effort. The week of April 6, 2009, television blogger Kath Skerry changed the name of her website GiveMeMyRemote.com to GiveMeMyChuck.com and used Twitter to notify her readers to support the show, prompting television columnists Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger, Maureen Ryan of Chicago Tribune and Josef Adalian of TelevisionWeek to write Chuck-related news on their websites and Twitter feeds. Sepinwall also wrote an open letter to NBC on reasons for renewal, while Ryan encouraged fan support by listing the various ways in which they could contribute to the campaign to save Chuck. One fan, Wendy Farrington, was inspired by a product placement in second season episodes to organize a campaign to purchase "Footlong" submarine sandwiches from Subway on the air date of the second season finale. This movement gained support from various cast and crew members, with actor Zachary Levi seen leading hundreds of fans to a Subway restaurant in Birmingham, England. Members of the show's cast and crew participated in a special "rally cry" episode of Chuck vs the Podcast on April 24, 2009, just before the season finale, to encourage fans to keep the campaign going and thank them for their support. On the campaign, co-creator Josh Schwartz remarked that it "has been one of the most amazing experiences of life to witness — and certainly the most creatively gratifying". Other fan efforts include the "Have a Heart, Renew Chuck" campaign, involving Chuck fans donating money to the American Heart Association on behalf of NBC. By the NBC upfront on May 19, 2009 over $17,000 was raised.

The campaign also prompted press and media coverage, with The Hollywood Reporter calling Chuck one of the "most discussed bubble show[s] online". Linda Holmes, writing for NPR, noted the support the campaign has received from both fans and critics, and comments: "It's very common for chasms to open between critics and viewers... But here, critics find themselves passionately advocating for something that's extraordinarily enjoyable to watch." James Poniewozik of Time magazine wrote about the efficacy of save-this-show columns and fan protests, saying, "The sad fact of advertising-supported television is that, unlike cable, it still rewards breadth, not depth, of viewership. Four million people who watch a show really hard are still just four million people to an ad buyer. Unless they spend money." He stated that the "Finale & Footlong" campaign was a far more effective way to demonstrate support since Subway is one of the show's major sponsors. However, Josh Bernoff of Advertising Age remarks, "Thousands of visible, loyal viewers does not equal millions of actual viewers. Objects in the groundswell may be smaller than they appear. People who congregate online are not a representative sample."[

In support of the show, Nestlé sent more than 1,000 packs of its Wonka Nerds candy to NBC after Josh Schwartz made such a suggestion to fans in an April 20, 2009 interview with The New York Times.Additionally, Chuck won the annual "Save Our Shows" poll by USA Today in which 43,000 people voted, topping the poll with 54% of respondents favoring renewal, beating other bubble shows such as Cold Case (45%) and Without a Trace (41%). The petition campaigns were also mentioned on the May 12, 2009 episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.