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Super Bowl Blackout Gives NBC’s Revolution Free Marketing

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII gave an inadvertent boost to one of the network’s chief rivals. Shortly after halftime, the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens was delayed for 34 minutes as parts of the venue, the Mercedes Benz Super Dome, lost power. Twitter exploded with pissed-off fans, and NBC took full advantage of the situation, using the chance promote their rookie series, Revolution.

Revolution, as you may or may not know, is about the aftermath of a worldwide blackout. In the 15 years since every power source on Earth mysteriously quit working, society has devolved into a feudal state of existence, where various factions, warlords, and new federations vie for control of the landscape.

The network wasted no time launching this tweet, teasing the show’s midseason return on March 25th:

As the delay kept going and going, the official Revolution Twitter account launched one more jab:

Fans of the show will know that one of these innocuous little lockets holds the power to turn the lights back on, though within a rather limited range.

NBC wasn’t the only one crowing about similarities to the power outage and Revolution. Heroes alum Greg Grunberg, recently deposed Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara, and TV Guide’s Tina Charles, among many others, all chimed in.

To be fair, there were also a large number of Dark Knight Rises tweets as well. More than one witty social medial user warned about an impending appearance of Bane.

The delay was a big black eye for CBS and the Super Dome, but it provided NBC a nice platform to keep Revolution, which is in the middle of an extended hiatus, in the front of the public consciousness.

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