In the spring of 1980, "Dallas" ended its season with the biggest network television cliffhanger ever. Viewers waited all summer to discover who shot conniving oilman J.R. Ewing; when CBS finally provided the answer that fall, a record 76% of turned-on American TVs were tuned into the show. In that pre-Internet, pre-podcast, pre-TiVo world, networks had only each other to compete with. Today, under pressure from on-demand media, networks are using new tricks to retain viewers. Their strategy this time around? Turn shows into communities and viewers into cult-like fanatics.
ABC's "Lost" is probably the most visible example of this recent phenomenon. Hundreds of websites and chat-rooms are devoted to the show, with fans scouring each frame of every episode for clues about the mysterious Pacific island that plays host to the survivors of a suspicious plane crash. The show's producers, for their part, have done everything they can to fan the flames of hysteria, including taking features of the show outside the TV frame.
For example, the producers created a fictitious organization -- the Hanso Foundation -- that exists both in the show and in "real life." In the show, the survivors have stumbled across films from the Foundation that give instructions on certain tasks the survivors must perform while on the island. Meanwhile, fans began googling the name to see if it was based on a real organization.
Then, during sweeps in May, ads appeared from the Hanso Foundation in major newspapers across the country and featured both a website and phone number. ABC marketing chief Mike Benson told USA Today that the response was so overwhelming it "shut down call centers in the UK and U.S." Since fan sites had been abuzz with questions about whether the Foundation might be responsible for some of the nefarious activities on the island, the ads appeared to respond to the fans, giving them the feeling that they were part of the "Lost" experience.
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