The WALKING DEAD show had a major development last night in its midseason finale.. a major character died. And the East Coast knew it first.
Unfortunately in our wired world of uber connectivity, it’s tough to keep things of the pop culture category secret for very long.
Normally its fans that spoil the show.. last night, though, it was the show itself..
After the EAST COAST airing of the was complete, someone thought too fast and posted this image on the official WALKING DEAD Facebook page:
The response was immediate–and angry. The entire West Coast audience just had the major plot twist revealed with a photo and an “RIP BETH” underneath..
At the time of this post, the image has garnered 190,000 shares, 540,000 likes, and 140,000 comments–most of them negative and containing humorous memes insulting the people behind THE WALKING DEAD for revealing by accident such a major affair on the program..
One demanded to ‘fire your social media manager.’ Another posted these
There were countless others–countless in the hundreds of thousands now–that most people cannot humanly have time to read..
But that’s the net..
There is a report circulating in the UK press that the image was pulled from the Facebook page–probably an OH S&*T moment occurred in a dark office somewhere, or a badly timed pre-written update went viral too quickly.. While the image may have been pulled quickly, the UK TELEGRAPH reports accurately that far too many people saw it already for the sudden pull down to become effective..
And with that: You have a PR disaster for a program that has a dedicated fan base who defends it to the death. Even Beth’s death.. Except the West Coast. They’re a bit angry..