The people who bring you the Fandex.
TV, as mentioned before, is going through a metamorphosis. It's already gone digital, which brings it one more step closer to the future of merging entirely with the Internet, where Hulu and FanCast and who knows how many illegal fan and download sites have already been providing viewing for years. The Internet, too, has provided an easy and contained platform for fans to talk about their favorite shows, offer suggestions and ideas of what it might all mean, spin off fanfic and discussion-- and for the most enterprising writers and producers (cough-JJ Abrams-cough) to keep up the buzz between seasons and to create shows entirely for Internet consumption, entirely on their own terms (cough-Joss Whedon-cough). Throw social media sites like Twitter and Facebook into the mix along with fansites, forums and Wikis, and you've got a massive nebula of Other Stuff that the traditional TV rating systems don't ever seem to consider.
Until now, ladies and gentlemen!
Check out this baby: The TV Fandex. It rates each week's shows based on how many people are talking about it all across the Internet, and gives a linked list of the top 50 shows. It's awesome. It's amazing. And it shows just how popular shows really are, free of the potential slants of only charting how often a show is watched as it airs, the first time, on it's own network.
There are several great things about this site: Not only does it show the series that are running, it shows the continuing popularity of shows that have already been cancelled (as of this writing, Sara Connor Chronicles is at #6, Star Trek is at #42, Pushing Daisies is at #44, and Buffy is at #48), which gives networks a clearer view of what shows people actually love, regardless of whether they were loyal weekly watchers. It allows people (like us, for instance) to look at the top 50 list and make conclusions about what shows are most popular and why, and to point out that there's a high prevalence of, say, sci fi shows on the list, or quirky procedurals, or medical dramas, and, therefore, point the networks in the direction of shows that could easily ride these waves and become superstars (provided they offer the same quality and investment, and aren't just obviously following suit. Like the premier of Mental.). It offers an idea of what upcoming shows will have the best premiers (Stargate Universe is at 36 and up from last week), and, hopefully, the most staying power. It offers a way to track the basic fickleness of television fandom. It gives hope that quality TV, well-written and well-acted and well-presented is actually at the top over the glut of reality train-wrecks and cruddy filler. And therefore, it gives hope that people might get more of that, that the networks have something to look at proving that we don't all want more VH1 reality spin-offs and C-list celebrity falseness-- that we really do want real, honest, good shows that makes us think and offer something different than the other shows.
And it's holistic, postmodern, outside-the-box-ish. If TV insists on changing, the way it's tracked needs to change too, and this is only for the better. Nothing stays the same forever, and that's a good thing-- staying the same forever means stagnation, and we've got enough of that already. We need freshness. Newness. New ways to understand it all, and new ways to show our love of things that perform poorly in the standard ratings. It saved Dollhouse. What can it save next?
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