Peacock Tries Bizarre New Strategy to Promote Shows Amid Strike
As the WGA and SAG strikes prevent most of Hollywood's actors and writers from promoting their new TV shows and movies, studios and streamers are having a difficult time sharing their new shows with the world. Without actors on press tours, there are no A-listers giving interviews, walking red carpets or making late night appearances, all with the goal of creating buzz and viral moments. Not to mention with the writers on strike, late night shows aren't even up and running.
That means studios are trying new ways of promoting their fall slates sans actors. PR agents are pushing interviews with below-the-line talent like sound engineers and costume designers, pre-strike interviews are being rerun and studios are relying more heavily on international content (since international actors aren't always members of SAG-AFTRA.)
In one of the more interesting, and slightly bizarre, strategies, NBC Universal's Peacock is doing press for their shows by posting full episodes on TikTok.
Now if you're thinking to yourself, "Wow I didn't know TikTok had a television format," That's because at the moment, TikTok doesn't have a feature that allows full episodes on the app. Rather Peacock has elected to break up episodes into smaller segments, uploading shorter clips one after another in a playlist. They've basically snatched the model from the now-defunct Quibi, chopping up regular TV into shorter bits you can watch one right after another on your phone.
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Peacock first tried the TikTok strategy last week when they uploaded the premiere of Love Island USA Season 5 to the app in 30 separate videos. While Love Island isn't impacted by the strike, (contestants aren't actors) as a promo tool, Episode 1 was posted on TikTok in hopes the clips would find their way into the feeds of new potential viewers. Parts 11 and 22 each have 1.2 million views, but Part 6 has fewer than 1,500 views, so it seems that not many people have watched the episode in its entirety.
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On August 7, as a part of a "catch up event," Peacock uploaded the pilot for Killing It to TikTok in five parts. Season 1 of the Craig Robinson-led series was easily one of the funniest sitcoms of 2022. And with the show returning for Season 2 on Aug. 17, the TikTok release is part of a larger network strategy to drum up interest. Without Office alum Robinson, Claudia O'Doherty and Rell Battle doing press, getting out the word that the show is returning has been difficult.
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Obviously studios are throwing whatever they can at the walls and seeing what sticks, but the TikTok strategy is an odd one given that the Peacock shows are all filmed in landscape and TikTok is specifically a vertically oriented app. When Quibi tried doing short-form TV content in 2020, it at least allowed users to watch in either vertical or horizontal formats. These poor Peacock shows are trapped between black backgrounds on much of the screen.
Killing It is a daring comedy that deserves all the viewers it can possibly amass, but uploading an episode to TikTok may not be the magic bullet. Perhaps this will be the impetus, however, for TikTok to launch their own streaming service. There are, after all, no new ideas, so we might as well try out Quibi 2.0.
Killing It Season 2 is streaming only on Peacock starting Aug. 17, 2023.
Next, The Office's Craig Robinson Shares What Makes the Cast of His New Comedy Killing It Special