The broadcast of the web series "Grimmsberg" as part of a Simpsons marathon on ProSieben was subsequently discussed very controversially in the social media. We had already assumed that the channel's market shares would be below average that evening, so it was not a big surprise. Especially due to the very strong evening at RTL (Das Supertalent, Wilkommen bei Mario Barth), the competition hardly stood a chance in the advertising-relevant target group. Even James Bond - Casino Royal on Sat.1 had to settle for disappointing figures and in some cases reached just as few people as the Halloween evening on the partner channel. However, the very lively discussion between fans and haters of our format was exciting. At times we even had to remove comments on the Facebook fan page because fans expressed their passion too obscenely or anti-fans had fallen below the limits of good taste. But all in all, the critics made it particularly clear that the attempt to combine our format with The Simpsons had failed. The Simpsons fan community was outraged by the long interruption between episodes and the newly acquired Grimmsberg fans complained about the boring repetitions of the yellow animated series. At the same time, not entirely to our surprise, many expectations seemed to have been broken. Young viewers had been calibrated to the following things in the marketing: Multimedia event, 3D, new series. Nobody could understand why the episodes were always so short and therefore suspected that it was the first episode of a series that had been cut to pieces because of some strange idea. Some even thought it was a split film. We also received a lot of emails from people asking why the 3D effect wouldn't happen. They had taken glasses from the cinema and sat tensely in front of their TV and nothing happened. Many didn't understand that it was a low budget format and that the 3D broadcast was only scheduled at night. But all in all, it led to a lot of talk about the format. On Twitter, Grimmsberg was among the top 10 German hashtags at the weekend. The nightly broadcast of the 3D version was still seen by 230,000 people. What the ratings platform DWDL.de calls a flop is a surprise success for us. With just 150,000 3D televisions sold in 2010, the number is more than respectable. The 2D viewer was literally looking down the tube on this date, because he got to see the so-called Side-By-Side, i.e. a double image with distorted structures. Nevertheless, many fans later reported on the Facebook page that they had watched it again despite the distortion in order to experience Grimmsberg in one piece. Interesting. The pirates were also quick on the draw. There are already numerous rips in the file-sharing networks. We hope that this will not affect the access figures on ProSieben.de, as this figure in particular is very exciting for our web concept.

All in all, it was a TV premiere evening with many facets. For me as an up-and-coming director, the experience of getting the unfiltered feedback of "normal" people slapped in the face was completely new. But as you know, these are the people I want to reach and so I also found the bashing an interesting experience. We are now eagerly awaiting the station's evaluation and the decision whether Grimmsberg has a future. Hundreds of fans on the Facebook page would like to see a continuation - by the way - 75% female under 18.