The television show, Friday Night Lights, offers an example of McLuhan's notion of a cool medium because it encourages high elements of audience participation. With the show on the chopping block for cancellation, the fans demonstrated how much they were invested in the show. Fans rallied on Facebook by setting up a "Save Friday Night Lights" page. Rather than allowing NBC to dictate the future of the show, the page aimed to rally support from fans to show NBC that it had the needed audience base for the show's continuation: "After reading an article in Radar Magazine, fans of the beloved show have become a little itchy. The fate of this fantastic show is in the balance. YOU can help! We here at Save FNL will be doing anything and everything to make sure that this show stays on television. Please make sure to join the group so you can be aware of all the new ways to keep Friday Night Lights afloat. We will have petitions, postcards to print out and send and hopefully footballs to be mailed to NBC Studios. We need YOUR help. We are just getting started here." These kinds of statements and efforts are not unique for fans trying to stop the cancellation of a show, but the page organized efforts for fans rather than fans having to act individually. Interestingly, the page also framed fans as having a great amount of influence over the show. The page's creator stated, "This is OUR show. If you are a fan of compelling and emotional storytelling, this is your show. . . . Don't let quality television die." Through digital media, audiences expressed their support and influence over the show, which framed them as an active part of the show rather than as merely passive watchers or recipients of the show.
In this way, the internet allowed the show's viewers to break the mold for how television is received. By sending NBC executives mini footballs and light bulbs with a message to "keep the lights on," fan protests over Friday Night Lights potential cancellations illustrates the interactivity that is made possible by digital media between producers and consumers of television shows. Because of threats to cancel, fans communicated the social impact of the show on them, but also the impact they could have as consumers. The internet offered a medium by which fans across the country could band together and produce a larger effect for executives. As a medium, the internet is diverse in its technical and communication possibilities. For FNL fans, it offered a way to organize petitions, consume show products, keep people updated, and organize protests. The fan protests, then, show a convergence of technology to provide multiple ways for fans to interact with one another, with executives, and to organize protests.
The fan protests surrounding FNL show that audience participation in the digital age has not prevented political engagement or stifled critical discussion. Instead, the internet provided a medium by which fans had the ability to be a part of decision making process.
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