Kudos to ABC. Last night, they angled a specific strategy to boost the premiere of their new hour long suspense drama, “Big Sky” and it paid off big time with a strong debuting number.
They can thank The Bachelorette fans for that.
The network ran ads throughout their top reality reliable for weeks leading up to last night and when the time came, they had Bachelorette, Tayshia Adams, and the other franchise accounts live tweet the Big Sky premiere.
That was a brilliant use of a lead it.
It also happened that last night’s Bachelorette was the best show of the season, moving back into traditional form with a fun and fast moving formula of attractive people doing whatever it takes for love. We had Wolverine, a plastic baby, Harvard math, and a smoke show (story HERE).
But the real challenge begins next week for ABC and “Big Sky”.
And that is keeping that beautiful lead-in.
It’s easy to keep a reality audience on board. Get them invested at the beginning of the season and repeat the formula that has worked in the past. It’s like baking a cake. We were all ready to go this year with Clare and the Tayshia leak, then after the Matt preview from last night, we’re ready to go again next season.
Unless Gen X favorite and Big Sky star, Ryan Phillipe, is going to start giving out roses at the end of the show, they probably won’t be able to do the same.
But ABC should pat themselves on the back for a strong chess move and successfully using a lead in they’ve worked hard on, to get another product off of the ground. It was fun to watch.