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#mkr #fail

My Kitchen Rules has a lot to learn about Twitter. Maybe they could take a few lessons from Q & A.

My Kitchen Rules has a lot to learn about Twitter.

Maybe they could take a few lessons from Q & A.

Yesterday Seven announced the top tweets using the #mkr hashtag would be featured in its first elimination cook-off, which comprised the final third of the show.

While the show was on air #mkr became one of the top trending subjects in Australia (second only to ‘Christchurch’).

But Seven’s utilisation of the tweets was clumsy. At several intermittent points in the cook-off a handful of tweets scrolled across the bottom of the screen like a news ticker. It was super-fast. Blink and you miss it.

For most of the time there were no tweets at all.

Typically, the Twitterverse responded:

– Posting tweets? #WTF #SLOW DOWN #MKR user generated content
– so apparently others are seeing tweets on #mkr… i’ve managed to miss them all… #fail
– #MKR Far too fast. Expected similar to the #QandA implementation. A ticker at that pace does not work.
– CH7 & #MKR have a lot to learn from #qanda about effective twitter usage on TV….
– Why can’t we see live tweet feed? #mkr
– Where’s the tweets on #MKR? Isn’t there any safe to broadcast??!
– CH7’s idea of “Top Tweets” is very different to people actually on Twitter. #MKR

In the handful of Tweets that made it to air (including “Follow Manu @manufiedel”) there also didn’t appear to be any that were negative about the show or the contestants.

Seven has previously incorporated tweets as part of the The Xtra Factor on 7TW. In October I wrote that the show was also guilty of too many self-congratulatory tweets. But at least we could read those ones (MKR should hire that production assistant pronto).

By the end of its short Twitter experiment, MKR had finally taken its foot off the accelerator somewhat. But it was still far too brief to be taken seriously.

As a show which is airing at different times in different states it also heavily favours viewers in Sydney and Melbourne -the bulk of the audience. Not ideal, but then networks aren’t responsible for state timezones!

Correction: Seven advises Tweets were live in various timezones.

Seven is planning to feature more tweets in next Wednesday’s elimination cook-off. Hopefully by then it will be slower, more frequent in number and more balanced.

25 Responses

  1. Seven really needed to slow the ticker down, alter the ticker so it would scroll up, like on news programs or just scrap it completely. This is a cooking reality show, not a chat show! My EPG said MKR would be repeat all of this week’s episodes back to back on Sunday morning, on 7TWO. Will they show the ticker?

  2. Channel Eleven uses tweets live to air everyday on it’s Couch Time program without an issue – shouldn’t be so hard for a major network like 7 to do it when a TEN sub channel is pulling it off easily!

  3. For this sort of show it just doesn’t work, it just serves as a distraction. If I want to read tweets about MKR I will get them from the internet as I have done quite happily over the last several episodes. Who really wants to read lip-service tweets for the show anyway?

  4. @Nathan from Extra Source Podcast

    Hmm, let’s see…Conan OBrien, Seth McFarlane, Crispin Glover, Stephen Fry, Carrie Fisher, John Cleese etc. uses Twitter.

    Nathan from Extra Source Podcast uses Facebook.

    QED 😀

  5. David, how about conducting a poll on who actually thinks these tweets enhance the enjoyment of their viewing experience. I have a feeling that the production teams are really not sure themselves and are just trying to climb aboard a fad. Last nights effort looked as if someone added the supers because they were told to do it and then someone else (the EP?) roared at them over the phone that the crawl was too fast so they were slowed down. From my experience TV people read everything to do with TV e.g blogs, green guides etc. mainly for the gossip and ignore opinions that are unfavourable, but in this case you never know!

  6. I just want to relax when I watch a show – not get distracted by trying to read the ticker on the bottom of the screen – unless it’s breaking news. It added no value and actually made me miss some of the things the contestants were doing. It has to go.

  7. I tend to agree that there is no need for the tweets on TV for a show that is not a live broadcast – if you want to see the tweets, go to twitter. They bring nothing to the show and is just more clutter to put up with on the screen.

  8. Didn’t like it at all. It’s unecessary. It works with Q&A because it’s a panel discussion show meant to generate questions and discussion. I just want to watch them cook and i can talk about the show with my friends. Leave the tweets to twits Seven.

  9. time zones.. no, but networks are responsible for making something work for the whole country! there is life outside of sydney and melbourne (and a better quality of life to boot)

  10. I have to agree with you. Having the scrolling tweets is a good idea, but the ticker was far too fast last night, I could barely read any of them. I’m sure it was just a teething problem, but they really need to fix it up post haste if it is to add any value to the viewing experience of the show.

  11. Absolutely hate the tweets and apart from the ratings I am not in the least bit interested in what other people think about TV shows, especially when I am watching. Please, please don’t let this become a trend. Masterchef will be ruined if they take a “me too” attitude and we get tweets on Masterchef. MKR tweets were a disaster, but I bet they will persevere because production teams never like to admit that they have made a mistake.

  12. Just let me whatch the show, if I want to talk about the show I come here. Whats next: Coles tweet “ohh and those apples are on special this week” get a life and just watch the show, its good, dont try to make it better.

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