TNT’s 1940’s Los Angeles mob drama, “Mob City,” premiered on Wednesday, December 4, offering a social TV first in the build up to its first show—the first episode script released on Twitter, 140 characters at a time, in what the show calls an “adaptweetion.”
On Monday, two days before the premiere, @MobCityTNT tweeted out the first scene.
Mob City Based on the book by John Buntin. Pilot Episode “A Guy Walks Into A Bar” #MobScript http://t.co/D13Qjzheoj
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— Mob City (@MobCityTNT) December 2, 2013
What came after was a three-day flurry of tweets, with the entire first episode script released ahead of Wednesday’s premiere, with the final cliffhanger message tweeted a half-hour before the show aired at 9pm.
HECKY: Just gimme a sec. I need a second, okay? I just have to take this in. — END OF SCENE — #MobScript http://t.co/JYE7dHyR0Y
— Mob City (@MobCityTNT) December 5, 2013
[[It isn’t over yet! Our 3-wk event starts TONIGHT on #TNT with an explosive final scene we didn’t tweet in #MobScript! Are you ready?]]
— Mob City (@MobCityTNT) December 5, 2013
The unprecedented social media script release didn’t translate to high ratings—the premiere attracted only 2.3 million viewers. We will keep tabs on how “Mob City” utilized social media for its next show.