Wank that's RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES!
The New York Times covers the wankbeat with a story about online fans' reaction to Law and Order: Criminal Intent's choose-your-own-ending episode. See: casual fans vs. real fans! Dumbing down! and What would the characters do?



Vote on Plot Raises Ire of 'Law & Order' Fans
By MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS

Published: October 26, 2004

After NBC announced that viewers of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" could vote online to decide the fate of a recurring character, the show's Internet fan message boards got rowdy. On the show's official message board, bloodlust was rampant ("it's time to do her in!!!!"); and on an unofficial fan forum, fans were consternated ("Criminal Intent is neither 'Survivor' nor some soap opera").

NBC had shown two different endings of the Oct. 17 episode of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," one on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast. In the East Coast version, the character, a murderer named Nicole Wallace, got away from the series hero, detective Robert Goren, played by Vincent D'Onofrio. In the other version, she was killed. The online results were announced, and the winning ending was shown on the Oct. 24 broadcast; 53 percent of voters said that Nicole, played by Olivia d'Abo, should survive.

"The vote wasn't the biggest thing that ever happened on the show, but it was the biggest thing that ever happened on the boards," said Pat Ward, a 49-year-old library worker at Butler University in Indianapolis whose nickname at the unofficial fan site www.criminal-intent.us is "patcat." (In a telephone interview, Ms. Ward explained that the alias honors her two feline pets.)

According to the founder of that forum, who declined to be identified by any name but "Criminal Mastermind," membership rose by 14 percent in the week following NBC's announcement of the vote. The volume of postings jumped 31 percent.

Criminal-intent.us even conducted its own poll in advance of the NBC vote. The discussion string, titled "Law & Order: Tribal Counsel," borrowed from the language of "Survivor," and its outcome was the opposite of the official vote on NBC. On the message board, 68 percent voted to kill the Wallace character; 31 percent voted to let her live. But much, and perhaps the majority, of the discussion on the boards was not so much about the question at stake in the vote, as about the significance of the vote itself.

Initially, many participants condemned the electoral innovation as a publicity stunt.

Jennifer Bart, 28, who teaches music at a public high school in Phoenix (and spends about seven hours a week on the official "Criminal Intent" message board at www.wolffilms.com/criminalintent), said by telephone, "I wasn't really a fan of the whole voting idea. That a show of this caliber would resort to a reality-TV gimmick just blew me away."

Some of the most devoted fans were alarmed that merely casual viewers would have a say in the future of the show. "Not to be undemocratic, but should those people really be voting?" wrote a fan calling herself Nikkigreen.

Others said they wished that the creators of "Criminal Intent" would not allow themselves to be distracted by interactive possibilities.

Sirenna on criminal-intent.us wrote: "I personally hate, yes, hate that the audience is influencing the writing. It's not dumbing down the show that I fear, since most people who watch it welcome the more complicated storylines. It's the quick-fix mentality behind the whole thing. What's the point of discussing the characters if they don't stay true to what they might do, whether we like it or not?"