How social media erupted about the cancellations of Happy Endings and Smash

By Natan Edelsburg 

With the TV upfronts come announcements of cancellations as networks set their schedules for the fall. As social TV grows it becomes easier and easier to understand how fans feel about these decisions they usually have no control over. Social media analytics company Crimson Hexagon provided Lost Remote with social analysis on both of these shows. Here are the details.

  • The research shows that from May 7 until about noon EST on Tuesday May 14, there were about 19,600 tweets that mentioned Happy Endings, including posts about its cancellation. For Smash, the volume was 25,000.
  • For Smash the word cluster reveals that some fans were expressing that they wish Glee had been canceled and Smash had been renewed, instead of the other way around. 
  • Fans of Happy Endings were tweeting a lot about “savehappyendings”
Whether or not social chatter should indicate whether a show is saved or not is unclear, but the future should hopefully bring alternative options for shows that still have fan bases but not necessarily large enough ones for TV. One option could be simple web series with one or more of the characters to see if the brand can be jump started. This could be determined by how many people scream out on social that they wish the TV show was saved. With Family, Arrested Development and more it’s definitely more common now for a show to come back from the dead.

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