Social Media





"We want to push the boundaries of social television as much as possible," says Jesse Redniss, USA's vice president of digital. "We want to change the way people are watching television."

USA will be seeding three to four keywords per episode during the broadcast through Facebook and Twitter, via its own Chatter social stream and on air. Should app users locate these keywords, they can enter them to earn show rewards such as access to deleted scenes, blooper reels and other exclusive WWE Tough Enough app content.

USA has also introduced app-specific game mechanics to its show affinity program "Tough Club." Members can log in to earn additional points, compete against fans for leader board status and exchange points for show merchandise.

"We want to provide fans with another touch point so that they can engage, in real-time, from whatever device is easiest to access at that time," says Redniss.

This time around USA has deemphasized GetGlue integration in favor of a more frictionless user on-boarding experience. The network will be charting real-time engagement as opposed to asking fans to explicitly "check in" to episodes.

The initiative marks USA's second attempt at engineering an engaging second screen experience. Psych Vision, released late into the past season of the Psych television series, saw more than 25,000 iOS installs. Fans were using the app while watching the show live and taking to the Chatter social stream to post to Facebook and Twitter, Redniss asserts.

The same underlying framework has been re-skinned to accommodate WWE Tough Enough fans. "A lot of our fan bases are loyal to specific show brands," says Redniss of the decision to release distinct apps for individual series. "We have a platform that we can reuse and enhance for each show offering."

The WWE Tough Enough series represents USA Network's foray back into reality television programming, a genre it hasn't visited in four years since the end of Nashville Star. WWE is already known for its highly engaged online fan base.

The iOS apps are already out, while the Android versions will be out later today.

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