One Week Until the American Odyssey Premiere
Less than a week before the premiere of American Odyssey NBC has started an interesting advertising concept. On Monday, Variety reported that NBC worked with Google Maps to create a companion online immersive experience for American Odyssey. Fans can go online to the new “Explore American Odyssey” website to see a branded Google Map featuring different videos, photos, and blogs at the different locations within the show. The concept is truly unique and smart, I have never seen anything like it before. As episodes are released and the season continues, more information will be available at the key cities within the interactive map so fans can follow along with the show and immerse themselves within the mystery of the storyline. The interactive exclusive content is available online at http://www.exploreamericanodyssey.com/. Google did a great job with it and the production value is very high, it seems like an interesting way to engage viewers and help them get to know the characters, I know clicking around the map peaked my interest.
TV By the Numbers reported about another promotion the show is doing. NBC held screenings of American Odyssey on March 25 at 10 different locations across the country in big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago. At these screenings NBC honored female veterans and active servicewomen as “women warriors” since the main character of the show, Sargaent Odelle Ballard is in the military. They are encouraging the use of the hashtag #WomenWarriors on social media for fans to tweet their support of females in the armed forces that they know. In addition to those promotions, American Odyssey held a Twitter Q&A with one of the stars of the show Peter Facinelli who is known for his role in Nurse Jackie as well as in the Twilight series. The Q&A generated a moderate amount of activity on their feed.
As far as advanced reviews go, Hank Stuever from the Washington Post said that the show built the necessary suspense it needs to succeed. Metacritic only offers three reviews, but all three so far have been positive.
Things are looking up going into the premiere this Sunday, April 5 at 10PM on NBC. The pilot will follow the premiere of the miniseries A.D. The Bible Continues in the 9 o’clock slot. It is interesting for NBC to premiere a biblical themed show on Easter Sunday, maybe they are expecting that the encourage viewers to tune in and then stick around for American Odyssey. The show will premiere against Battle Creek on CBS and special holiday programming, the Ten Commandments, on ABC. Battle Creek has been doing pretty well with ratings, averaging about 6/ 6.5 million viewers every week in the 18-49 demographic. We’ll see next week how the shows compete against each other!
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