Chuck Me Mondays Sept. 14th until March 1st STRATEGY

First! NO HASHTAG for September 14th. Instead, we will type out  We Heart Chuck as three separate words, in honor of the American Heart Association fund raising effort by the campaign of the same name.  That is right, absolutely NO HASHTAG for this week.  It is time we test to see if we can trend common words as opposed to hashtags.  Might as well start now.  So, your tweets could look like:

Chuck and Sarah are so cute together in this episode! We Heart Chuck

Second, we may be changing terms every week.  So, check back here every Tuesday or Wednesday for the new strategy.

Third, now for the strategy:

Based on the poll, the majority want to continue into Season 2 of CHUCK in order.  So, we will do that.  However, since there are some people who can't find it in their wallet to spend $2 to $3 a week on CHUCK (I spend more than that a day on tea), I am going to offer up alternate strategies for them.

MAIN STRATEGY

We watch Season 2 in order from First Date to Ring.  You can purchase the episodes via iTunes, Amazon, Playstation Network, and XBOX Live or find some other method I don't want to know about (well, not publicly at least).

AMAZON - $1.99 per SD episode; $35.02 for the whole season (savings of $8.76)

AMAZON - $2.99 per HD episode; $52.62 for the whole season (savings of $13.16)

iTunes - $1.99 per SD episode; $39.99 for the whole season (savings of $3.79)

iTunes - $2.99 per HD episode; $59.99 for the whole season (savings of $5.79)

Playstation Network - $1.99 per SD episode; no full season price offered; no HD offered (no link either)

XBox Live - 160 points = $2.00 per SD episode; no full season price offered; no HD offered


ALTERNATE STRATEGY #1 
Watch any random episode from the second half of Season 2 on NBC.com, selected from Third Dimension to Ring.  Fans will watch at the same time as the main strategy group and tweet as normal.  You will likely annoy the rest of us with your tweets about Best Friend and Colonel every week, but whatever.  If you can't afford the episodes, or find some other way of acquiring them (I told you!  I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!), then this is at least a way that you can join us and help the trending. :)

Alternate Strategy #2
Watch Season 1 over again.  I don't care in what order.  Just tweet like a maniac.

There you go.  I do not recommend buying the entire season yet, unless you really want to own it now.  NBC and WB might have the correct order of episodes coming for online viewing (looks like NBC's license for the second half runs out on the 20th of this month).

Chuck Me Mondays - Sept. 7th, 2009 - Watch, Give & Buy Chuck for Labor Day

WATCH

Monday, September 7th, is a holiday in the US: Labor Day.  While many people will be away, those of us not going anywhere too far away from our computers, will be watching CHUCK episodes together for a few hours and trying to trend #FREECHUCK yet again on Twitter.

The episodes, as voted by the fans, and the times we will watch are (yes, we will watch 13 and 14 in the correct order, as originally intended):

5PM ET - Episode 13: Chuck Vs. The Best Friend
6PM ET - Episode 14: Chuck Vs. The Suburbs
7PM ET - Episode 16: Chuck Vs. The Lethal Weapon
8PM ET - Episode 21: Chuck Vs. The Colonel
9PM ET - Episode 22: Chuck Vs. The Ring

The times have been set so that everyone around the world can participate at some point.

We will be using the NBC Viewing Party whenever possible.  Anyone who hosts a viewing party can bring 10 people into a room.  It is highly recommended that anyone who hosts have a good computer and a good Internet connection.  The older the computer and the slower the connection, the more problems for everyone who joins.

I created a little video for people who want to use the Viewing Party but were not sure how to do it.  Hopefully this helps:




If you cannot join a viewing party, you can also watch the episodes on NBC.com by using the links I have provided above for each individual episode.


While the Viewing Party feature has its own chat room, it would help our effort the most if you used a third party Twitter application like twhirl or the more popular TweetDeck both of which are far more useful than the normal web browser version of Twitter.

FYI, you get 150 API requests per hour on Twitter, per account.  That means anything you do on Twitter counts against that.  Once you reach that limit, you will be blocked from tweeting for that hour.  Here are the limits as per Twitter Support:

• 1,000 total updates per day, on any and all devices (web, mobile web, phone, API, etc. )
  
• 250 total direct messages per day, on any and all devices
  
• 150 API requests per hour

So, while trying to trend, limit how often your refresh or receive updates, if you want more of your tweets to count in the trend.

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GIVE

We Heart Chuck needs your donations they are doing it via birthday cards to Zachary Levi.  Please give at least $5 (to cover the cost of the American Heart Association sending the card to Zach).  Zach will read all your cards and has already commented on the campaign.  So, whether or not you are able to watch and tweet with us on Monday, you can still do some good in the name of CHUCK.

Please go to the site, follow the directions on how to contribute, and give.  The AHA and Zachary Levi will surely appreciate it.

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BUY

Subway is the reason we got a third season of CHUCK and they deserve our patronage.  So, please go out on this day and purchase at least one $5 footlong and enjoy a great sandwich while watching CHUCK.  Or, as with We Heart Chuck, even if you can't watch with us, you can still stop by a Subway.

Chuck Me Mondays Success & We Heart Chuck

Last night was a great deal of fun and success for Chuck Me Mondays.  We watched three episodes and trended the hashtag #FreeChuck several times during the process.  In all, we had nearly 4,000 tweets during those three hours and had writer Ali Adler tweeting along with us and engaging the fans in her special way (thank you, Ali!).

Our plans for next week, as NBC and WB still work to figure out this season 2 online issue, is to take one more week of Chuck Me Mondays fun.  Since September 7th is a holiday in the US, we will use that day to spend more time with CHUCK for those who want to join in together.  It will be a marathon of five episodes that may include episodes from season 1 and season 2.  A poll is going up where fans should vote on their five favorite second half of season 2 episodes.  These episodes are available on NBC.com right now for free viewing.

Now, as for WE HEART CHUCK, this incredible charity drive that raised over $17,000 in 17-days in May, for the American Heart Association, is being kicked off yet again.  The creators of the campaign have some great ideas and are looking to get as many people involved as possible, this time for the long run.  Show everyone how much you value the show and those involved while saving lives.  I did an interview with some of the members of the effort and it is posted in the right side panel or you can follow this link to Chuck You Tuesday - The Podcast. 

Please contribute!

Chuck Me Mondays FINAL Strategy for August 31st

#FREECHUCK is the new hashtag for this coming Monday. Please let everyone you know who participates in Chuck Me Mondays know about it.

We are watching THREE Season 1 episodes on Monday as we wait for NBC to correct the Season 2 episode issue. We are attempting to trend for 3+ hours and this is also a good test for future efforts.

Based on your votes, the episodes we will be watching are:

Episode 8: CHUCK VERSUS THE TRUTH
Episode 9: CHUCK VERSUS THE IMPORTED HARD SALAMI
Episode 10: CHUCK VERSUS THE NEMESIS

Viewing starts at the NORMAL time of 9PM ET and ends at 11:43PM ET (we will start each episode at the top of each hour so everyone has a chance to tweet, eat, and whatever else comes to mind).

This will give a majority of people in the other time zones the ability to participate, though it does ask those on the east coast of the US and Canada to stay up later. Hopefully, what we lose in east coasters will be made up for by the amount of people we retain in the other time zones.

[Redacted]

Chuck Me Mondays Strategy for August 31st

Based on the current poll count on August 26 at 7:33PM ET, next Monday, August 31st, it looks like we will be watching:

Truth
Salami
Nemesis


We will start at 9PM ET (so, the normal time) and take 15 minute breaks between episodes to tweet, eat, and whatever else comes to mind. [this is up for debate in the comments section]

We will finish at roughly 11:43PM ET.

We will be changing hashtags (we are still testing to see if Twitter is blocking us once we succeed in trending).

Next week's hashtag will be #FreeChuck.

If we succeed in trending that, we will consider changing hashtags each week. They will need to be simple and we will give everyone more than a day or two to learn of the change.

By the way, great job last night. We had over 2,000 #chuckmeout tweets in 43 minutes.

Chuck Me Mondays Strategy for August 31st and September 7th

Based on the comments here and others I have received, it would seem that the most popular idea for August 31st sounds something like Wendy Farrington's comment in the last blog post:

August 31st - We watch 3 episodes that fans vote on from [Season 1] (ed. note: see poll on the right side) ... This will help us trend longer on a standard Monday evening and give [NBC and WB] extra time to try to work out the early [Season 2] episode issue.

The choice we need to make for August 31st is what time we should start the viewings:

1) 6PM ET
2) 7PM ET
3) 8PM ET
4) 9PM ET

The earlier we start, the easier it will be for the east coast and Europeans to join in, but the later we start, the easier it is for the rest of the US and Canada to join in. Starting at the normal time and watching two more episodes would allow us to trend longer but would mean those who watched all three, on the east coast, would be up until 11:45 PM (since each episode is around 43 minutes long without commercials, and figuring for 15 minute breaks in between).



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As for September 7th, I like the idea of organizing another Subway specific day. Make Labor Day a Subway Monday in honor of Chuck (Chuck Me Subway?). Toss in a catchy name for it and we can make it happen. Ideas? Remember to sign your comments if you are posting anonymously so we can credit you for any ideas we use.

As Bethany Actually and Agent Taylor said, we would use that day to push people to @chuckmeout on Twitter, as well as @subwayfreshbuzz.

But the other issue is what we will watch and when we will watch it. The choices are:

A) an all day viewing of Season 1 starting at some undetermined time

B) a 5-episode viewing of Season 1 starting at some undetermined time

C) take the next 3 most favorite episodes in the poll on the right and watch them as we do/did August 31st

D) Put together viewing parties using NBC's Viewing Party feature and watch select season 2 episodes (this is limited to US dwellers and anyone who is crafty)

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So, other than voting in the poll on the right, please put in your comments what time you want the August 31st event to start (the 3-episode viewing) and what option you want for September 7th.

You can also toss in an idea for what we want to call our Subway effort.

New Idea For You To Consider - CMM In Two Weeks

[Note, this blog is being updated on the fly and edits are included in these brackets]

So, someone at NBC or WB or in some dark corner of some room, acquired the rights to the last 11 episodes of season 2 as opposed to the first 11. This is of course a problem since we have been watching season 1 in order during the CMM event.

NBC has stated that it is currently working to correct the problem. However, this likely requires negotiation, renegotiation, and the sign-off from every single person involved in the show who stood to receive residuals once the promotional period (given to the network where they collect revenue without paying residuals) ended. Therefor, it might be some weeks before that happens (if it happens).

On a positive note, we have always had a 3-week buffer between number of episodes to watch and number of weeks until the show returns. That means we can take some time off or not jump into season 2 of CHUCK right away. And that means we have a decision to make, and since I like for the fans to be involved in these decisions and not just a handful of us pushing the fandom buttons, I have a few ideas to toss out to you all and you can vote for or against them (or inject your own).

Disclosure time: These ideas come from discussions Wendy Farrington and I have had over a few weeks. Therefor, any other suggestion that might work better may still be out there, so share and if people like it, I will add it and credit you (please leave your name if you are posting anonymously).

1) Take at least one week off, on August 31st [September 7th is also an option now], [redacted]. This gives us a quick breather between seasons and affords NBC/WB an extra week [or two] to get the right episodes up on the site.

2) Same as point 1, but we rewatch all of season 1 on August 31st [and/or September 7th], starting at 9AM EST and ending whenever we finish. This will give everyone around the world the chance to jump in at some point and give us the chance to trend for longer than an hour (depending, of course, on participation).

3) Same as point 2 except we choose a select number of episodes (perhaps the top 3 or 5) and watch them at specific times during the day. This would give us a chance to trend longer provided that we have many involved.

4) On August 31st [and potentially September 7th], we put together NBC Viewing Parties and watch episodes from the second half of season 2 in groups of ten with different people volunteering to host (you need to have a pretty solid computer system to host a room without having pausing issues).

5) Your recommended option. :)

Sarah's death interrupted by a wedding.

Please comment (anonymous posting is enabled, but please sign with a name) and share with your friends so we can get as many comments as possible. We have about a 5-days before we have to have all options on the table.

Chuck Me Mondays succeeds again!

Well, last night was a lot of fun. We watched an episode of CHUCK and trended #chuckmeout on Twitter for over an hour. I am very happy to see that we had so many more tweets and participants than over the last month. Prior to last night, we were averaging around 1,500 tweets. But last night, we had over 2,500 tweets during the episode viewin and, more importantly, even more tweets following the episode (I stopped counting after 3,000).

While there is still not enough evidence to prove whether or not the #chuckmemondays tag was banned (since we trended to 10th after 37 minutes and 2,000 tweets, which was more than we were doing for at least 4 of the 5 weeks where we failed to trend), logic dictates that more people tweeting the correct tag helps. What helped us trend for over an hour was all the people still tweeting following the episode. We even dropped off the trending list a couple of times, only to return again (actually trending 8th to 9th to 10th and back). An analytical mind would deduce that this means we trended because of 1) more people participating and 2) more tweets containing the hashtag during that time-frame.

Therefor, for us to continue to succeed, we need more people and to tweet our hashtags or terms for longer than just the length of the episode. We need to maybe start a few minutes early and end some time later. This will help us in the long run and promote the show.

Speaking of which, last night a handful of us went to the search list of #chuckmeout and looked for anyone asking what the term was related to, and we sent them tweets telling them about the show. This is how we can affect people around the world and get them to check out the show. Please help that effort during future CMM/CMO events.

Anyway, great job everyone. Let's keep it going.

#chuckmeout and the NBC forum issues

First of all, we are using #chuckmeout tomorrow as our hashtag and NOT using #chuckmemondays (please, don't use it).

Second, you can find out what this whole NBC forum issue stuff is about by listening here or reading about it here (worth reading that great blog even if you listen to the podcast).

Spread the word.