Have you seen the AMC series the Walking Dead? If not, do yourself a favor and set your DVR immediately. The show is a—here comes the pun—monster hit. Literally. The WD is quickly growing in popularity as the show gets ready to launch into the second part of season 2 this week. As cliché as I find the zombie-genre, this show is different and swept me, and a whole lot of others, into the audience from the first episode. The stories are gripping, and the characters are credible, and 3-dimensional. It is easy to go through all the fingernails on one hand before the end of the hour.
Usually, I tune these types of shows out and have easily fallen asleep to many of the vampire and supernatural TV show offerings available in prime time. But there is something special about the Walking Dead. I have become a flag waving P1, and apparently there are many, many WD P1’s. The Walking Dead have a fanatically vocal group of fans and this zombie epidemic is breaking cable television records for audience viewing.
How are they doing this? Can Zombies really be all that exciting? Despite huge road blocks that come with first season start-ups, plus budget cuts, the loss of their leader, and an “unnerved” their cast, the show has overcome obstacles and gets better and better.
In an article by LA journalist Susan Karlin, she gets to the bottom of how they do it and the message is clear: research, research, research. The producers pay close attention to what they put out there and pull data from the fans, the cast, the crew. Among many sources for data, they have panels, blogs, and discussions via email and twitter, after-show and an adventure game on their website. Karlin finds their winning formula fits in 4 main area:
- Know Your Core Principles And Stick To Them
- Keep An Open Door Policy
- Allow for Individual Process
- Listen to Consumers – research!