HitFix’s resident television critic and blogger Alan Sepinwall has a new interview with Chuck star Zachary Levi. In the interview, Levi talks about the series winning the Hulu brackets contest for favorite series, his favorite moments from season four, the fans and whether or not the series will be back for a fifth season.
This contest is far from the first time you’ve gotten to witness the passion of your fanbase. How did it feel this time?
I’m always a little conflicted with it. Obviously, it feels amazing to have fans as passionate and dedicated as we do. I’ve always tried as much as I can to show them that love back. Our fanbase is so amazing and I’m so appreciative of them. It really makes you feel good about what you do at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, none of these competitions mean anything to networks at the end of the day. I’m sure that they clock them to some degree. There’s a couple of issues, one of them being. Most of these online voting battles, you can vote multiple times. It’s not indicative of an overall number. It could be 10 people who are literally on their laptops all day long. If there were 5 million votes for you, it could be just a fraction of that in populace. So networks don’t look at it and go, “Oh, see? There’s a whole lot of people watching the show.”
But even if it was, unfortunately, and I’ve talked to fans about this before, online viewership just doesn’t hold water with networks. The money is coming from advertisers who are paying for the show to be watched on television. We make some online revenue, but it pales in comparison to what we need to make a show, especially one the size and scope “Chuck” is. I want to say to the fans that I love your fervor and your passion and your love, and it means so much to me, but don’t waste your time thinking it’s going to resonate with the network thinking that they’ll renew the show. We’ve come back every year, and I know that the network and studio have taken the fans voice into account. One of the smartest things I’ve ever seen is the Subway campaign, because that does resonate with the advertiser. The advertiser might say, “Well, if they’re willing to buy sandwiches to keep a show on the air, there may be some merit to it.” While going online shows love and shows passion, our numbers continue to drop. You’ve got to go rustle up people to watch the show.
You can read the full interview HERE
Is it just me or does Zach sound a little tired of the grind? The waiting each year on a renewal and all that. Seems to me it sounds like he doesn’t care either way if the show gets picked up or not.