“The World According to Paris” premiered on Wednesday night on Oxygen, and while the show aired, Paris Hilton chatted with fans on Facebook while an on-screen hashtag focused the conversation on Twitter.
In fact, it was the longest, most prominent on-air hashtag we’ve seen yet — #TheWorldAccordingtoParis appeared in the upper-right of the screen the entire time.
Interestingly, the hashtag didn’t drive many tweets, at least during the West Coast airing, likely because of its unwieldy length (#Paris was more popular). Meanwhile, a promo urged viewers to join Paris on Facebook for a live chat.
The Facebook app included a live video feed and a Facebook chat experience, powered by WiredSet and Ustream. For the East Coast airing, Paris joined the live feed 15 minutes before the premiere to answer questions from the chat, which appeared under the live feed window. When the show began, producers muted the audio and Paris watched the show, reappearing during commercial breaks to talk more about the show and answer questions.
Designed as an exclusive viewing party, the app was “fan-gated” (users had to become a fan of the page to watch) and also tied into Facebook’s events platform, so users could RSVP to watch.
But as it often happens with social TV events these days, there was a time zone issue. West Coast viewers saw a recording of Hilton’s live East Coast Facebook feed, and to make things worse, the video was played about 10 minutes late. So not only did Hilton’s live video not match the chat, but it didn’t sync with the commercial breaks, either.
Regardless, the show should get a gold star for firing on all social TV cylinders for the premiere — which will be an increasingly common occurrence as new TV shows pull out all the stops to build a fan base.