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‘Sharknado 2’ Aftermath: Why Syfy Wins — and It’s Not About the Ratings

Jul 31, 2014  •  Post A Comment

Wednesday night’s telecast of “Sharknado 2: The Second One” was a win for Syfy regardless of how the ratings for the TV movie turn out.

Writing in New York Magazine, Joe Adalian notes that “Sharknado” wasn’t watched by many people when it first aired, but it went on to become a surprise pop-culture phenomenon last summer, with 14 million Americans ending up watching a portion of the Syfy film.

“The mere existence of ‘Sharknado 2’ means Syfy has already won,” Adalian writes. That’s because the show probably cost “next to nothing,” and the sequel has likely already been bought by international buyers, which means “the movie has probably paid for itself already.”

Other companies are also marketing the film, thanks to promotional tie-ins from partners such as Random House, which has a “Sharknado”-inspired book on preparing for disasters, and Subway, which is posting promotional material in its sandwich shops.

Adalian adds, “Also, because the whole point of ‘Sharknado’ is that it is intentionally bad TV, nobody in Syfy’s programming department is going to get yelled at by their bosses because the movie was a ‘disappointment.’”

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