Super Bowl Blackout: NBC’s ‘Revolution’ Takes Advantage Of Power Outage
In what may be one of the more opportunistic uses of the Super Bowl blackout, NBC’s drama series Revolution was quick to capitalize on the power outage by dropping a number of tweets teasing the series’ return next month.
Shortly after the lights in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome went out, fans turned to Twitter to discuss the outage. What greeted them was sheer genius on the part of NBC. The official account for the series tweeted, “Just a taste of what’s to come on March 25. #LightsOut #Revolution” at 6:45 pm PST, roughly an hour after the Superdome went dark.
Ten minutes later, the account sent out another tweet, “If only the stadium had one of these,” with a picture of a necklace critical to the plot of the series. The image was also posted on the Revolution Facebook page.
Revolution premiered on September 17, 2012. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future in which all electricity on the planet has been disabled. The Matheson family holds the key to finding out what disabled all the electricity 15 years prior to the series’ setting in a mysterious pendant, but they must find a way to keep it away from Sebastian Monroe, President of the Monroe Republic, who wants the pendant to himself.
Several watching the game when the blackout occured recognized the irony of the situation. Former Walking Dead showrunner Glenn Mazzara tweeted:
Is this the beginning of the apocalypse? Or a lame stunt promoting Revolution?
— Glen Mazzara (@glenmazzara) February 4, 2013
The Vampire Diaries‘ executive producerJulie Plec stated that the network and series producer J.J. Abrams photobombed the Big Game:
NBC and JJ Abrams just ‘Revolution’ photobombed the Superbowl.#blackout
— julieplec (@julieplec) February 4, 2013
Still, others decried it as a lame publicity stunt by NBC:
Worst promo for NBC’s “Revolution” yet.
— Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer) February 4, 2013
When they killed the power at the Superdome, I thought it was NBC trying to reboot their show “Revolution” — Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees) February 4, 2013
Ugh, stop trying to make Revolution happen, NBC! #SuperBowlBlackOut
— damianholbrook (@TVGMDamian) February 4, 2013
The lights at the Superdome remained out for 35 minutes. The outage apparently didn’t affect the Baltimore Ravens, who went on to beat the San Francisco 49ers 34-31.
If only the stadium had one of these… #RevolutionMarch25 ow.ly/i/1sWdP — Revolution (@NBCRevolution) February 4, 2013
Just a taste of what’s to come on March 25. #LightsOut #Revolution
— Revolution (@NBCRevolution) February 4, 2013
