Pollapalooza!: How International Fans Can Raise The Flag For Chuck

As an international fan of NBC’s Chuck, I’m generally at a loss when it comes to helping support the show. Does it matter whether I watch live through my local carrier of CityTV or two hours earlier via the NBC affiliate WGRZ in Buffalo?* Does Subway Canada care that I eat their products in the name of a television show that runs advertising through the American arm of its company? Are the folks at NBC aware that, no matter how much I may want to, I can’t access episodes via their site because of intellectual property laws that prohibit my (legal) access to their video streams or those of sites like Hulu? Are people who are not only not in Nielsen households but not in Canadian Nielsen households counted?

Well, I have discovered one way to be counted. And counted. And counted. And counted.

The Online Poll.

The first one I participated in was E! Online’s Girl on Top poll, which was won by the lovely and talented Yvonne Strahovski. It was a fun diversion but I was still of the opinion that online polls were mildly amusing at best but didn’t really mean anything in the overall scheme of getting Chuck a fourth season.

The next was the TV’s Top Couples on the same site with the winners this time being Sarah Walker and Chuck Bartowski. While madly clicking, I still figured it was something to keep me occupied but hardly qualified in the same league as buying multiple Subway products or convincing a few hundred other people to start watching Chuck on a regular basis.

But the third big poll has changed my point of view. That, of course, was the recent Save One Show poll, again hosted by “Watch With Kristin”. This one, it seemed, had the potential to make a difference, and for the first time, as an international fan, I felt that I was doing my bit to sway the powers that be at NBC into giving the go-ahead for a fourth season of Chuck.

But what made this poll different? Well, E! Online promised to support the poll’s winner by mentioning it in their television shows’ broadcasts and presenting the results to the producing network. And the showrunners thought it was a factor that could only help, enough that all the shows competing in the final round submitted their reactions to being in the final six.

And the fans also submitted comments, over 5,000 of them.

So what did the fans have to say, besides voting with their mouse? There was the usual cheerleading for a favorite show and threats of mortal expiration in the event that said show is not renewed. There was also the normal amount of name-calling and impolite remarks among some fans of competing shows.

But this time, something was missing. Now, I didn’t scan through all the comments attached to this poll. There were just too many. But I have in the past with other polls, and what seemed to be absent this time around were comments to the effect that the person was confused about why anyone would vote for a show they had never heard of. The “Chuck? I’ve never seen it,” and “Who’s watching that show? Nobody I know.”

So in addition to perhaps getting Chuck a hearing at the executive level at NBC, poll activity has succeeded in making the show more generally known at the grassroots level. Since people don’t tend to watch a show they’ve never heard of before, this can only be a good thing. And even if someone is hostile because the Chuck fandom seems to contain a large proportion of poll addicts (like me) who are willing to spend a lot of time casting vote after vote after vote, who’s to say their curiosity won’t be piqued at some point?

After all, stranger things have happened. The fandom managed to get a third season in part by buying a whole bunch of Subway sandwiches, so…

So as an international fan, I’m encouraged. Because there are a lot of us out there all eligible to participate in on-line polls. Chuck currently airs in 68 countries outside of the U.S. It stands to reason that this has generated some number of fans; in fact, visitors to ChuckTV.net hail from 170 different countries (don’t ask how that works). And in a quote from USA Today’s Gary Levin, apparently non-U.S. markets do have some degree of impact on whether a show sees renewal:

In the past, fan campaigns for shows such as Chuck have deluged the networks with symbolic trinkets to persuade them to renew on-the-fence series. The Save Our Shows poll also is used as a gauge of support that’s not always reflected in ratings.

But renewal decisions more frequently depend on other factors: profitability, potential for growth, sales to foreign markets and quality of replacement series.

And speaking of USA Today, their Save Our Shows poll is still open. So visit and be heard. This one also collects demographic data and was won last year by – you guessed it – Chuck!

So rally ’round the BuyMoria flag, wherever you live, cast your votes, eat your Footlongs and watch Chuck live. Vive le Chuck!

*CityTV is currently airing Chuck at 10:00 p.m., which is too late for little me on a work night.