For the first time in television history, viewers will get to choose the ending of an episode. In a surprising twist, CBS is the pioneer of this type of social interactive programming.
Long known as the network that caters to the older demographic, CBS has often been slow to embrace the benefits the internet can provide a television show. Therefore, it is mildly surprising that the first case of fans choosing the ending will come courtesy of "Hawaii Five-0" in their January 14th episode.
According to Zap2it.com, the show will present the viewers with three possible suspects. Then, voting will commence on Twitter and CBS.com. The ending that garners the most votes from fans will be shown. There will be separate voting for the Eastern/Central airing and the Pacific airing.
The episode of "Hawaii Five-0" will have the team investigating the murder of a college professor. The three potential suspects will be the professor's boss, his teaching assistant, or his student that he caught cheating. The fans will ultimately decide who did it, and that ending will air. All three endings will be made available online after the broadcast.
This experiment in social television probably won't be the start of a massive trend, but it will be interesting to see the effects this idea has on the episode's viewership. Regardless of how the experiment turns out, it might be more interesting that CBS is the one conducting it.
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