In eight months, Shonda Rhimes broke up the First Family, unleashed a mole into the executive branch of the White House, suppressed a ballot-rigging debacle, killed innocent people, and consequently, made Scandal the top-rated drama on network television.
While season one of ABC’s Thursday night political thriller earned a modest critical response, round two hit record-highs, even outscoring American Idol in its recent week’s airing. A large part of the show’s new-found success has been the support of a passionate online community, and more specifically, the juggernaut that has become “black Twitter.” Tweets each week keep Scandal trending for days, and it doesn’t hurt that Rhimes and her cast are leading the call to action.
Lesson learned? If you tweet it, they will come.
“Deep down, what social media did for Scandal really isn’t any different than what social media does for a new business or one that’s off the beaten path,” Scott Kleinberg, Social Media Editor for the Chicago Tribune, tells theGrio. “So many people are passionate about it – they love the premise, the story, and they love the fact that Shonda Rhimes is behind it. So, one friend talks to another, but in this case friendships are formed in all that chatter. It causes people to become curious and check it out. And then they want to check out the conversation. And then they can’t get enough.”
“Gladiators” unite through hashtag discussions
Not only does Scandal’s storyline lend itself to deliberation, the show has purposely produced a social environment conducive to ongoing discussions. Clever hashtags are created to streamline conversations. The entire cast live-tweets with fans, known as “gladiators.” Even customized commercials are broadcast to advertise details of the Twitter party.
The results of these concerted efforts are evident in the figures alone. Scandal’s social media campaigns have generated more than 2,200 tweets a minute and five worldwide trending topics, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The latest ratings for the soap-style show are up by 23 percent, with 8.9 million viewers tuning into its penultimate airing.
Rhimes told THR they were willing to do “whatever it takes to make this show work,” and judging by the results, they accomplished a lot. Even church pastors are getting in on the hashtag action, attempting to preach their sermons in 140 characters or less around the immoral incident of the hour.
“It’s a connected community,” Kleinberg points out. “Though there are so many people tweeting, never does it feel like the tweets are scattered. They all seem connected by fans – it’s like a giant party. The show is exciting in its own right with a storyline that continues from week to week. So in between episodes, these tweeting fans are building excitement toward next week. The social portion never really stops.”
For some viewers, it can be frustrating, especially if they can’t catch the episode in real time. Suffice it to say, even your best tweets won’t provide spoiler warnings.
Myles McNutt, TV Critic for Cultural Learnings/The A.V. Club, suggests the Scandal digital strategy makes it necessary to watch the show live, thus, it inherently boosts ratings.
“ABC’s bullish social media campaigning has been one of the biggest success stories of the past year in the TV industry, based both on the active participation of the show’s stars, and ABC’s use of that involvement to turn each week’s episode into an event,” he notes. “In a culture where live viewing is becoming less and less common, as DVR use and online streaming rise in popularity, Scandal‘s #WhoShotFitz or #WhatTheHuck are ways to turn not watching Scandal live into a risk for those who don’t want to be spoiled.”
Tapping into the power of “Black Twitter”
Along with shrewd engagement tactics, Scandal has benefited largely from the participation of its African-American audience, a demographic shown to be predominant online.
According to TechCrunch, almost twice as many African-Americans use Twitter as whites, and a significant chunk of those users have become the backbone of Scandal’s social sphere.
As so-called “Black Twitter” becomes more influential, other networks are taking note.
“We’ve seen all the Scandal wannabes come out, and they’ve all sucked,” remarks Mary Pryor, a social media strategist and content producer who has actively guided the Scandal Twiterrati. “Now you have people that want to get these black eyeballs…It says a lot that African-Americans over-index on Twitter. It says a lot that African-Americans and Latinos are the leading ethno [sic] groups on Instagram. Network television wants to be able to grasp that fire.”
Equally significant is the fact that Scandal can’t necessarily be categorized as a “black show.” Kerry Washington plays a strong black lead, but a majority of the cast is not African-American, nor do issues of race typically arise in the storyline.
The lack of such an angle coupled with the fact Washington’s character, Olivia Pope, carries on a steamy love affair with the white U.S. president has prompted some to criticize Rhimes for missing an opportunity to discuss racial dynamics.
Not until last night’s finale did the president ever address his interracial affair when he manipulated it as a ploy to seamlessly divorce the first lady (masterminded, of course, by Pope).
Rhimes’ has also been panned for not detailing Pope’s rise to power. Her characters are regarded as “underdeveloped,” thought the finale also suggests Pope’s back story will be known soon.
In an interview with the New York Times, Rhimes addressed critics saying, “I don’t think that we have to have a discussion about race when you’re watching a black woman who is having an affair with the white president of the United States. The discussion is right in front of your face.”
To that extent, Pryor agrees, noting that those who use Scandal’s melodramatic plot paths as a guidebook to life are in need of a check.
“As people of color, we haven’t had too many shows like that; how many shows out there have us leading anything on network television?” Pryor says. “I have to remind people on a daily basis, Scandal’s not a black television show…You can’t expect [Rhimes] to talk about everything black, and what’s plaguing the black dating world in terms of her choosing to deal with white dudes to help you solve your problems. That’s not what this show was made for, but that’s how personal the show has become.”
She adds, “It’s like Obama. [People say] ‘You’re a black president, why don’t you deal with black issues all the time?’…Shonda Rhimes, I kind of feel like she has to deal with that double-edged sword of being a black female that cast a strong black lead that now everybody loves.”
Washington takes a big step forward
Strong-willed, always reliable, and nothing short of bold, the character of Olivia Pope has become the pillar of Scandal’s stimulating narrative, and a relatable, intriguing figure to its black female audience. In her love life, Pope tends to go for white men (well, she did briefly date a black Congressman, but everyone knows her heart was never there). She takes orders from no one, not even the president. She lives alone; dresses in designer clothes; and most importantly, she always wins.
Always.
As emblematic as she is for all women, for African-American women, Pope represents an important step forward in entertainment, and gravitation away from the black female characters prominent in popular reality shows. At the ABC upfront this week, Jimmy Kimmel reportedly “boasted” that the show marks the “first network drama in 40 years to feature an African-American female lead.”
The impact is indisputable, and keeps the drama’s female audience busy on the social front.
“It’s the first show that really has extremely passionate love making scenes between two different races, and kind of plays into a lot of the black dating and social issues plaguing today’s women,” Pryor adds. “It plays into that whole entire black women having the highest graduation rates as opposed to black men; black women taking on more leadership roles. It plays into this whole entire theme that’s happening in real life right now. It’s the elevated fantasy of black female success versus being married to baller.”
And the critic’s are biting too
Beyond online socializing, Scandal has won over critics, many of whom weren’t as enthusiastic about the program in its initial airing. Reviews from season one deemed the characters “whiny,” goofy, and called the show “flawed on most every level.”
Part of the reason its sophomore run has done better may simply be due to some good old-fashioned growing up, or the extension of the show from a seven-episode series to 22 episodes. Characters were given pasts; the president was nearly assassinated; secret sexual rendezvous overlapped; and one very busy hit man got tangled in a web of dirty laundry.
The fluid, intimate nature of Rhimes’ first hit series, Grey’s Anatomy, made its way into a political spectacle, and complicated plot twists left viewers consistently begging for more.
“Scandal has built its reputation on an intensely serialized structure this season, using prominent mysteries and reveals as a way to entice viewers to tune in,” McNutt observes. “The show got a short order to test out its characters, find a rhythm, and then tinker with the formula for a second season. While ABC has been smart in how they’ve leveraged social media to help fuel this development, it is also a more traditional example of a show adapting as it moves into a second season.”
A new precedence
Other series could likely learn from Scandal’s achievement, and really, Rhimes’ general approach to television. Good reviews or bad, give it time to be nurtured, assemble a street team armed with hashtags, and anything could happen.
“Everyone – and I mean everyone – should look at the social media story of Scandal,” Kleinberg says. “They should study it and modify/imitate it for their show, movie, sports, events, etc. And actually, as these types of things become stories, the decision makers are going to expect a social media campaign to be worked into whatever they do because they aren’t going to want to take the risk of creating a show without it. You don’t want to push social too hard and turn off the audience, but you can’t deny the power of it.”
Follow Courtney Garcia on Twitter at @courtgarcia