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I have been rambling on about Chuck since October of 2007. My initial couple of posts were about how Chuck might be affected by the writer’s strike at the time. The strike caused some down time for the show, splitting the first season up. That was the first of many struggles for Chuck. Mondays at 8EST was a tough time slot for the show, facing things like Monday Night Football, Dancing With The Stars, and eventually House when it was moved to the time slot. Also, while very original, Chuck definitely fits a viewer niche. The show is part romantic comedy, part science fiction, and all wrapped up in action. While many would argue that it’s got something for everyone, others might acknowledge that aspects of the show may put some people off. Considering it’s competition, Chuck has done reasonably well. The viewer numbers, while down in the second season, aren’t as low as many shows that the network has kept. More over, the ever-important demographic for ages 18-49 continues to stay strong at 2.3 million viewers.

Debuting with solid shows like Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone, Chuck has watched both series officially die. Now it sits on the edge, awaiting NBC’s press release on May 5TH. But with an incredibly hyped finale tonight, Chuck has more than just network politics going for it. It has amazing viewer campaigns which may rival even Jericho’s nutty fans.

ChuckTV.Net was an early supporter of the show. Featuring cast & crew interviews in podcast segments and teasing upcoming episode media, it was one of the first to launch it’s own Save Chuck campaign called the Watch/Buy/Share campaign. The idea is to get as many people to watch, buy seasons or episodes of, and even just share seasons or episodes of the show in an attempt to snag viewers. Chuck is a great show, but part of it’s low viewer numbers stems from the fact that people haven’t given it a chance because other stable shows in it’s time slot already have them pulled away. While the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, & LA Times rave about the show it faces a target demographic that is less influenced by media and more influenced from their friends and social networks. ChuckTV.Net was all about spreading the word of the show through user created youtube highlights and just getting people interested enough to watch and episode. They also initialized writing NBC Universal, with claims that individual personal letters raving about the show means significantly more than online petitions and emails. Head over to their campaign headquarters for more Chuck ideas.

Zachary Levi’s unofficial fan site began encouraging people to buy a $5 dollar footlong at Subway today and dropping off a comment card indicating your support for the show. This all stemmed from very obvious product placement in a few Chuck episodes this season. You can get the full details on that campaign here or check out the facebook event page.

These are just two examples of what many sites like www.pleasesavechuck.com and Give Me My Remote are promoting, and that’s not counting the groups on Facebook and twitter buzz. You can search for #chuck & #savechuck at Twitter’s search page for more information on that.

And on that note, I’m going to have to excuse myself to dive into this chicken teriyaki sub. I’ll leave you with my reason for watching Chuck. Chuck airs at 8EST, 7 CST on NBC. Tonight is the season finale. Don’t freak out.

Yvonne Strahovski As Sarah Walker in Chuck

Today is Saturday, March 28TH. It is snowing here in Iowa. Hopefully for the last time until next fall. Although I can’t complain about a couple inches of snow in comparison to what the Dakotas and Minnesota is dealing with, I can’t remember the last time I’ve wanted summer to get here faster. I tend to lock myself in my room on crappy days like this, watching stupid movies or reruns of Chuck.

Today, I’m editing reruns of Chuck. Yeah. I’m that bored. Chuck versus the Counting Crows. Deal with it.

Messing around in Premiere

I’m not a huge fan of television. I don’t hate it, by any means, but I rarely have “must see” shows. I can’t stand reality television, nor can I stand most hour long dramas that seem to be taking over airtime. When my TV is on, it’s usually tuned into Nickalodeon at night for background noise. Not for Spongebob or iCarly, but for old 90’s TV shows. Family Matters, Home Improvement, and, perhaps most importantly, Roseanne.

I will now take a brief break to admit that I have watched iCarly – and it’s not a bad show. . .

I caught the last season of Friday Night Lights before it went off-air on NBC and started playing on DirecTV. I occasionally tune in still on satellite, but primarily because that one blonde check that seems to always get in trouble is way hot and their seems to be this constant romantic tension between her and this geeky bad-football-player-found-skill (who has apparently become less geeky somehow?) which always makes for good TV.

Hot female lead+hopeless romantic nerd=TV MAGIC. Got it?

I’m talking the Tyra and Landry chemistry. Urkle and Laura. Cory and Topanga. David and Darlene. . well, okay she wasn’t that attractive – but you get where I’m going with this right?

Enter late 2007. In walks this nerd, Chuck, who works at his local Buy More (Bestbuy) for the Nerd Herd (Geek Squad). Through an entirely messy incident, he becomes an invaluable asset to the CIA. Enter hot female lead government spy Sarah who’s sole responsiblity is watching over Chuck. Que the fake girlfriend cover, in which the line between fake and real becomes very blurred. Add in an awesome music supervisor who scores some well known tunes in addition to some lesser known, but very good songs and a fantastic editing team – well, you can’t really go wrong.

Instantly good television. It’s a fairly original, hour-long comedy drama with amazing stunt coordination for which it won an Emmy last year. Both Time and the Chicago Tribune have listed Chuck in their top 10 TV series of 2008, but to really appreciate Chuck you should go check out an episode. Recent episodes from season 2 are online at http://nbc.com/chuck/.

And now that I’ve shared with you what I feel is the perfect formula for TV magic, I shall admit one thing.

I have not missed an episode of Chuck.

Chuck returns to NBC February 2ND, 2009. I will await it’s return.