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After arguing on Friday that NBC's "I'm A Celebrity..." had nearly killed my fondness for reality television, I certainly hadn't planned to write about the show again so soon.
But given the events of the weekend, I did want to write about how NBC has handled some of the publicity issues surrounding the show. At least from the outside, I get the impression that this is a case of a PR 1.0 in a Web 2.0 world.
On Saturday, Heidi Montag-Pratt's sister Stephanie used her Twitter account to complain that her sister was in the hospital with an IV in her arm "after being locked in a dark room for 3 days w no food or water."
Those tweets, along with a quote from an NBC executive who spoke with Ryan Seacrest about the show earlier in the week, were cobbled together by a number of publications into a "Heidi claims to have been tortured" meme.
My issue with all of this is that NBC has officially stayed mum on the allegations. USMagazine.com and TMZ.com have included unnamed "sources on the set" that either agree with the allegations (TMZ) or claim they are untrue (USMagazine). But other than a short statement from producer ITV Studios, there has not been any official word on the allegations. It wasn't until Monday morning that MSNBC's Courtney Hazlett had an extended series of quotes from an unnamed "source whose part of the production." The quotes denied all of the allegations and promised the story would be addressed on Monday's show.
I suppose the theory at NBC is that by staying officially silent, the audience is encouraged to tune into Monday night's broadcast to see what has actually been going on in Costa Rica. That might work a little better if the producers hadn't already yanked the audience's chain a couple of times already. The duo's fate was supposed to be revealed on Thursday's show and then it was punted to Monday. And according to an AOL interview with exiting celebrity Angela, while the other contestants said no to the return of the Pratts’ to the show, producers were set to allow them back anyway.
But in this 24/7 media environment, why let someone else frame the "story" of your show? Why not take advantage of the buzz and build some of that traffic to NBC.com that the network keeps arguing they can monetize?
If you visit NBC.com's official page for the show, you don't see any indication of the "hospitalization" story. It's as if the official site exists in some alternative universe that only includes what the network and producers officially decide is news.
Why not take advantage of the buzz to build traffic for NBC.com? How difficult is it to throw together a short video clip discussing some of the rumors? How hard is it to have someone release an "official" statement/tease for the show...even if it just appears on NBC.com?
And then there's the embarrassingly lame "official" Twitter feed for the show, which was last updated three days ago with a URL encouraging people to vote on a food challenge.
My point about all of this is that in this intense media environment, you need to be cognizant of how to handle things digitally. If you're going to air a show four nights a week, then you need to have a digital evangelist for the show whose job it is to progress the web site, the twitter feed and the story that's being told online. It's good for the ratings of the show, it's good for the traffic on your web site and it allows you the opportunity to control your message online as well as off.
Perhaps NBC's approach to these challenges will change in the upcoming days. But right now, the network's digital approach with the show is painfully 1.0.
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