I want to talk to you about a grass roots campaign to save Eli Stone. You see, I had this idea where fans of the program would send George Michael paraphernalia - CDs, MP3s, T-Shirts, programs, videos - to the executive mugwumps over at ABC in order to express their frustration that they were not picking up the back nine episodes of the series. It would have been similar in scope to the Great Peanut Campaign of 2007 that ending up (temporarily) saving Jericho.
Now, you're probably glaring at the computer screen right now and sarcastically asking 'Well, Rich, how much would it really cost to send a CD to these programming idiots?' Actually, when you think about it, quite a bit. Take the purchase of the CD. Let's say you go to an online site like Amazon to purchase George Michael's Faith album, which contains many songs that were titles to season one episodes of Eli Stone.
On Amazon you can purchase this album for around $9. Factor in a few dollars for shipping, since you need at least $25 to qualify for their Free Super Saver program. Then, since you want to include a specific, insult-laden note, you'll want to have it shipped to your residence to mail it yourself. Add a few more dollars to purchase the padded mailer and some insurance to deliver it. Before you know it, this protest statement has cost you $20 that you can't really afford to lose.
Well, you say to yourself, I'll just download one song that I can burn onto a CD. Okay, that's certainly cheap at about $.99 a song on Amazon or iTunes. But, you may need to purchase an actual CD that you can burn the music onto, and that will cost a few dollars. Include the delivery items mentioned previously and you are looking at a potential cost of $10 or more. I'll just buy it at my local store, you say in frustration. Yes, in that case you'll save money on shipping costs; however, you'll need to factor in the amount of gas you use traveling to and from the (most likely) big box store where you buy the album. Gas you will want to use when you need to look for a new job once you get laid off.
The examples I gave above don't just apply to Eli Stone. It would apply to the other shows, past and present, that people tried to save through a grass roots campaign. Take Pushing Daisies, for instance. The most logical protest I could think of (which has probably been done already) is to send daisies to the network executives. Even in the best of times flowers don't come cheap and sending only one daisy wouldn't even phase the suits. A few dozen per fan...that could say something. But with a basket of these flowers ranging from $30-$35, plus shipping, the outcome of your statement may not outweigh the physical price you pay.
And don't even think about sending pies! If you thought sending flowers was expensive, think about the costs of materials and shipping a homemade pie to these executives. Everything from flour to fruit has skyrocketed in price over the last few years. Then, you would probably need to ship the product in a refrigerated container. Yes, you could certainly order a pre-made pie online, but those aren't cheap either. Some of these frozen pies can run you in the $20 range, not including the cost of delivery.
What it comes down to is what you are able to afford. If you are an avid fan of a particular program, and have some money to burn, you may want to send something like a George Michael CD or a pie to the network executives to show your support for the show. However, since many of us have very little to burn these days, perhaps it's better to startup a letter writing campaign that people, or sign one of the online petitions that have cropped up. Perhaps even sending an invitation out for a flash mob protest in front of the network offices would work. It's certainly better than having your hard-earned money wasted by executives who look at the dollar more than the viewer. What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-05-2008 @ 2:38PM
Tom said...
Don’t waste your time.
The nuts thing with Jericho worked because it generated publicity but now everyone is trying to do it and it’s just not news anymore. So sending anything is a waste of your time. Trust me. I personally know TV execs who laugh about this sort of stuff at parties (and rightfully so considering you’re sending them a bunch of free stuff for cancelling your favorite show).
That said there is one thing that might work. I preface this by saying there is no way on earth this would ever work. But it certainly has a better chance of working than anything you’re planning.
Set up a savings account. Set up a Paypal account where people can send money that is deposited into the savings account. Offer ABC the money if they don’t cancel the show.
Again, there’s almost no earthly way you’d produce enough money to make a difference but it’s the only thing that might make any sort of impact and it’s not impossible. An hour of Network TV costs about $3 Million to produce. Eli Stone at its lowest point has about 4.5 Million viewers so if you could get any kind of decent percentage to send in $10 or $20 you’d have a chance.
Remember, you don’t have to pay for the whole show you just have to generate enough revenue to offset the revenue lost from low ratings.
Again, this whole scenario is very, very, very, very, very, very, very unlikely. But if you want a grass roots campaign this is the way to do it.
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12-05-2008 @ 3:42PM
0megapart!cle said...
What about the benefit to the economy of spending all this money trying to rescue your favorite show? Lowered consumer spending is one of the recent foreboding signs that the recession might turn into a depression, after all. I personally don't think its worth it for a show that already got 2 seasons, but that's just me...
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12-05-2008 @ 3:42PM
rtms said...
Didn't some fans try to do that with one of the Star Trek shows? They tried to raise money for more episodes but since it cost like 1.5 million or more an ep it went no where. It's just too expensive nowadays to do that sort of thing. Even a show like Brothers and Sisters, 7th Heaven etc or even a sitcom cost almost a half a million to a million to produce.
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12-06-2008 @ 10:47AM
Tom said...
Yes they did and they failed because they only raised $3.14 million (far below their $30 million dollar goal). Again, raising the kind of money needed is downright impossible but it’s more of a possibility than sending in CDs, or letters, or nuts, or whatever.
12-05-2008 @ 4:17PM
Eric H said...
The networks wouldn't accept the money from individuals anyhow. Too bad shows like this juat cant go pay per view.
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12-05-2008 @ 4:22PM
Jason said...
What about writing your congressman? What about renting a billboard next to Stuckey's? Nothing will change these guys' minds except ratings. The best thing we can do is let these shows go out with a bang by increasing the number of people watching these shows.
What also might work is convincing another channel to pick up the show where ABC leaves off.
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12-05-2008 @ 4:27PM
Mel said...
I've always wanted to set up a charity to help save cancelled or on the bubble shows. I know some people will get offended, saying that we should be sending money to charities for diseases or hunger or the like, but I think it's like buying books for a school. It won't save lifes, but it's the principle of the thing.
I'm thinking Arrested Development orange for a ribbon color.
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12-05-2008 @ 5:17PM
Hollie said...
Why would you buy a new CD when you get a perfectly good used one for a penny? Popular CDs that people have outgrown (and old unpopular CDs) are often available on Amazon for one cent plus $2.99 postage. "Faith" and "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1" are two examples of this phenomenon.
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12-05-2008 @ 6:07PM
Phil Dally said...
Screw em all. I watched eli stone, pushing daisies and dirty money every week. I'll miss Stone and Daisies...not so much money. I remember some network pushing so-so shows like desperate houswives and grays anatomy on us twice a week to make us love them. What was that network? Oh yeah.
Well they can get rid of lost and samantha who. They already got rid of carpoolers and cavemen. Let the other shoe drop for notes from the underbelly. Kiss my butt and hello history channel and food network.
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12-05-2008 @ 8:51PM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
The best and cheapest thing to do is send letters or even postcards to the networks of your favorite shows telling them what shows you watch and that you are not a member of a Nielsen family. Tell them how great your shows are and what sponsors crap you buy and how everyone in your family watches it together and any other smoke that you can think of to blow up their asses. I have heard that hand-written letters are like gold to the nets, although I'm 99.99999% sure that Nina Tassler just throws them away or has her lackeys read them. You need to send them 1 letter per week per name and you probably need about 5 million letters per week like that for it to work. It's pretty much too late to do it and succeed once the show has been cancelled.
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12-06-2008 @ 3:34AM
Ralph J. Piocci said...
Eli Stone and Daisies should be picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel.
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12-06-2008 @ 7:51AM
lorelei25 said...
Cds are way too complicated.
Go out in your back yard, pick up a small stone (get it? preferably granite), put it in a bubble wrap envelope with a letter and send it off First Class. Maybe $2, tops. Low cost, and to the point.
Do like the idea of sending a letter weekly. Mmmm...
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12-06-2008 @ 9:18AM
Mike said...
The thing is to send in something that takes up a lot of room...not ez to rid of.
One thing that helped Jerico was there was a nut supplier that collected payments then applied them together to get the big orders and deliver truck loads of peanuts to CBS. There would have been little heard if 1000 people sent in little airplane packs.
So going with the stone idea.. if a local supplier took orders that could all be applied toward a dumptruck load of stones and delivered to ABC parking.
Guess the same supplier could start a account for the truck of dirt for dirty sexy money too.
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12-06-2008 @ 10:55AM
Tom said...
I agree with Mike, it would need to be done in bulk. With that said Stones are something that might actually work. If you could get a couple hundred thousand stones and drop them right on ABC’s doorstep with a box that has “Save Eli Stone” on the side you’d probably draw some attention. Because it would take about a day for them to make arrangements to remove the box meaning it would be out there for everyone to see and someone is bound to call a news station in that time.
So that might actually be enough to generate publicity which is what the network would want from such a stunt.
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12-06-2008 @ 10:55AM
Tom said...
That’s not true at all. Networks are businesses just like anyone else and business requires two things: A person to want something and another person to be willing to provide it. If both those factors exist business can take place.
If someone running a grass roots campaign made enough money to be credible to the networks they would happily tell that person how much they need to make to keep the show alive. All that would be left after that would be for the campaign to buy ad space at the price the network set.
Remember, ratings are only valuable because they determine ad rates. If someone is willing to pay a higher ad rate despite the ratings than the ratings no longer have meaning.
Again, that would be a lot of money so I don’t think it will happen but it’s as possible as anything else.
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1-05-2009 @ 7:08AM
Greg Tidwell said...
I'd chip in a few hundred bucks for another season of eli stone. and fuck abc, let's just watch it online.
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