Blogging Your Favorite TV Shows

USA Today (which is no stranger to blogging) has a article on TV shows for blogs today which offers some cool examples and useful insights into how blogs make TV shows better.

TV show blogs range from factual to fictional to just plain funny… As blogging goes berserk on the Web in general, TV shows are beefing up their blogs to help market their programs in a more community-friendly way, offering eager and younger tech-savvy fans a bonus for being loyal and, in the end, boosting ratings for the shows.

Just like DVDs have made a lot of movies more compelling by adding behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes to the basic film, a good blog for a TV show can give you more insights into the cast and crew behind a show. And of course a lot of shows have blogs that are written in-character which provide more background on the story or character development of the show.

USA Today’s wrapped up a good sidebar of example sites, such as ABC’s blogs for Grey’s Anatomy, which features blogs for everything from the show’s writers to characters and locations in the show. ABC’s gone even further with their show Sons & Daughters, with Out on a Limb, a TypePad-powered blog that gives Fred Goss (the series’ co-creator, producer, director, co-writer and cast member) a venue for keeping fans updated on the show. Perhaps Steve Andrade at NBC puts it best:

“I’ve been in this job for 10 years. For the first time, all the creative people in town are finally realizing how advantageous it is to work in this space. They all know it’s going to be part of their future. There is no model. We’re all trying to figure it out.”