Oxygen kicked off the first episode of The Glee Project on Sunday night with enough social TV integration to make even the most die-hard Gleek busy. As with a handful of other Oxygen shows, The Glee Project was featured on Oxygen’s social chat experience. Contestant Damian McGinty chatted along with fans on OxygenLive.com and the Oxygen Live iPad, iPhone and Android apps.
Similar to the premiere of Paris Hilton’s new show, Oxygen offered a live stream on Facebook. The contestants for the The Glee Project answered Facebook questions from fans during commercial breaks. As the breaks ended, producers muted the audio and the contestants watched the show with the live feed still rolling. Unlike the Paris Hilton premiere, it was timed just to the East Coast airing.
The show’s Twitter account, @thegleeproject, kept tuned to all time zones with updates around the hashtag #thegleeproject and occasionally, #believe. (We didn’t see any national trending moments, although the show was up against the NBA Finals.) Fans could also check into the show on GetGlue and earn a badge, sponsored by Verizon. And the show’s on Tumblr, too.
Then in a first for Oxygen, the show featured “Shazamable moments” (earlier story) when viewers could use their Shazam mobile apps to “listen” to the TV set and unlock extras, like an extended cut of Darran Criss “mentoring the homework assignment winner.”
The Glee Project is certainly one of the most social of all the summer premieres to date.