Character Blogs No Longer Laughable

Posted on September 13, 2006

Many networks have found success with character blogs this year. An article from Broadcast & Cable explained some of the success. The article says Dwight Schrute's Schrute Space, a character blog for The Office, has already been seen by over 1 million people.

The Office's Dwight Schrute's blog on nbc.com has been read by over 1,000,000 different viewers since it launched last fall, with 2 million-3 million page views. Fulfilling NBC boss Jeff Zucker's "TV 360" mandate, the comedy is expanding its Web presence on MySpace, with blog entries from several characters.

The staff of Grey's Anatomy came up with the interesting concept of giving a character blog to the local bartender. The blog is called The Emerald City Bar. The blog is written by Chris Van Dusen, assistant to Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey's Anatomy.

Van Dusen tells B&C, "The idea was to blog what happens in between the episodes. It's what [the characters] talk about when they come to the bar."

The blogs allow the screenwriters to write more life into their characters. They also gives fans of the shows more time to spend with their favorite characters. The character blogs may not work for every show but the success television producers have found with them already proves that character blogs are not the laughable jokes many blog evangelists once accused them of being.