Here’s Why Most Shows Should Have a Lesbian Couple

Dear Hollywood: I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse. Here’s the pitch: you can drastically increase viewership by adding a well-written and well-acted lesbian couple to your show. This is because well-publicized, popular lesbian couples have the ability to mobilize domestic audiences while simultaneously drawing in viewers globally in a way that heterosexual couples-except in rare circumstances-cannot.

This isn’t an opinion, it’s cold, hard numbers. How viewers consume content is changing, and social media is gaining increasing importance as a gauge for the popularity of a show in a way that transcends the traditional polling/Nielsen method. The below four case studies-chosen specifically to reflect diversity across genre and network-should be sufficient to demonstrate the profitability of bringing in and retaining lesbian characters.

Pristina, 2016-current (“General Hospital,” daytime soap opera on broadcast network ABC)

“General Hospital” has a regrettably ambivalent relationship with the pairing of Kristina (Lexi Ainsworth) and Parker (Ashley Jones), leading fans to complain, with well-reasoned evidence, that GH never adequately valued “Pristina.” To support their point, they note that neither Ainsworth nor Jones are on contract, the actual number of minutes that Kristina and Parker have been on screen together may be cumulatively fewer than 45 minutes despite their storyline spanning two years, and the show never gave Pristina more than a single episode of happiness before the couple would be sidelined for months at a time. This begs the question: is there a tangible, metrics-based reason these two minor characters should be given more screen time? Objectively, yes, and here’s why:

• They poll well with viewers: According to the weekly poll conducted by “We Love Soaps, ” for September 18-22 Pristina was the #2 favorite couple across all daytime soaps, with Jones and Ainsworth both finishing in the top 8 for favorite actresses. The week before, Pristina was #4, and the four weeks before that, Pristina held steady at #2. It seems statistically accurate to say that so long as Pristina has screen time, the couple tends to rank #2 in this particular poll, losing out only to Franco and Elizabeth (“Friz”), also from GH. The next closest GH pair is Nathan and Maxie (“Naxie”).

• They’re internationally dynamic on social media: According to the free tools on talkwalker.com, a hashtag tracker, for the week of 1 October, the two hashtags #Pristina and #GH used together (to separate Pristina from the capital of Kosovo, among other things) were used 1,500 times on Twitter, reaching 109,100 people. Of the Tweeters, only 75.6% were based in the U.S. The next highest concentrations were, unexpectedly, from Colombia and Romania, indicating that Pristina’s fanbase spans multiple continents. #Friz #GH, for comparative context, was mentioned 2,700 times during the same time period, but the Tweeters were almost exclusively from the U.S. and Canada. #Naxie #GH, on the other hand, had only 154 mentions, also originating exclusively from Canada and the U.S. This reinforces Pristina’s status as the second-most popular pairing on GH by numbers and the only pairing that transcends North American viewership.

• They compete evenly against popular straight couples: On Youtube, the two most watched videos tagged for Pristina have 1.4 million and 738,000 views. The top two Friz videos have just shy of a million views and 262,000 views, while for Naxie the numbers are 1.9 million and 203,000 views. These numbers suggest Pristina is approximately as popular as Friz and Naxie despite being a minor storyline.

• They win awards: In April 2017, Ainsworth won an Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Kristina’s coming out storyline. Although GH cast members are frequently nominated and win in Emmy categories, it is worth noting that Ainsworth was a clear favorite, entering the awards night with 9-4 odds, suggesting widespread support in the entertainment industry for the storyline.

Conclusion: Pristina fans are a vocal subcommunity in GH’s fanbase whose investment in the Kristina-Parker same-sex pairing significantly punches above its weight compared to the show’s primary, heterosexual couples. The Pristina storyline has brought in not only viewers who ordinarily wouldn’t watch soap operas, but also international viewers. GH’s uneven, vacillating approach to the couple, however, (guess they’re now going to lesbian off screen in Oregon, ugh) has turned off other potential viewers, who have selected instead to follow couples with more screen time, such as the budding romance of “Teriah” (Tessa and Mariah) on “The Young and the Restless.” The fact that there’s a large market for lesbian storylines on soap operas despite the belief that soap opera audiences are too socially conservative to accept them is also supported by the enormous popularity of Olivia and Natalia, “Otalia,” on “Guiding Light.”

PAGE 2 – When Clexa won the internet Clexa, 2015-2016 (“The 100,” primetime sci-fi drama on broadcast network The CW)

One day, lesbians will tell their grandchildren, “I remember Clexa…” It is a portmanteau that will live on in the lesbian community pretty much forever well after all others are distant memories. The pairing of Clarke and Lexa (Clexa) on “The 100” mobilized queer women everywhere, showing the previously unanticipated size and power of queer female viewership and the massive boost that shows can receive from a popular lesbian pairing if handled respectfully (and in this case, the damage caused by mishandling, too). Although there are highly negative aspects to this case study-showrunner Jason Rothenberg’s courting of LGBT fans got more viewers but became a double-edged sword when he contributed to the Bury Your Gays trope-it is a standout example of the quantitative metrics of lesbian pairings, and here’s why:

• It won the Internet: According to Tumblr’s “Fandometrics,” in 2016 Clexa was the top “ship” for all of Tumblr, a sexual-orientation agnostic title that required beating out…well, everyone. In addition, Alycia Debnam-Carey (Lexa) came in #1 individually for top actress and Eliza Taylor (Clarke) came in #3, beating out the likes of Daisy Ridley, Jennifer Lawrence, and Margot Robbie. If we view Tumblr as a good proxy for the broader Internet, there was no more visibly popular couple on the Internet in 2016 than Clexa, and that’s a huge deal.

• It dominated couples polling across all genres: In Zimbio’s annual Couples March Madness poll in 2015, Clexa amassed over 1.5 million votes and beat scores of heterosexual pairings to make it to the finals (where it lost to the lesbian sort-of couple Root and Shaw of “Person of Interest,” which garnered 2.5 million votes). Clexa then proceeded to win the poll in 2016 and, unbelievably, 2017 as well.

• It dominated couples polling across all genres, part 2: In E! Online’s TV Scoop Awards 2016, Clexa won for Steamiest/Sexiest Moment, Best Kiss, and Most Heartbreaking Goodbye, while Lexa won for Best Fight, Taylor won for Best Drama Actress, and Debnam-Carery won for Best Guest Star. In the 2017 TV Scoop Awards, Clexa won for Best Fandom, followed by Bellarke, the portmanteau for the heterosexual pairing of Clarke and Bellamy.

• It Beat Out Rival Straight Ships on YouTube: On Youtube, one Clexa scene has 3.1 million views, while another scene has 2.4 million. The most viewed scene for Bellarke, on the other hand, has a mere 1.6 million views. Comparatively, fans just aren’t that into Bellarke.

• It Dominated Twitter: #Clexa first started trending worldwide on Twitter in February 2015. When Lexa returned to the show in January 2016, “Heda is Back” was tweeted 63,800 times. Variations of Twitter hashtags associated with Clexa trended across several countries while Clexa was on air, and continue to make a measurable impact even today. In the first week of October 2017, a year and a half after Lexa’s death, talkwalker records 8,900 uses of #Clexa, reaching 2.2 million people. Only half of these Tweets came from America; the next biggest identifiable percentages are from Brazil, Russia, Israel, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Vietnam. #Bellarke in contrast, had only 4,600 uses during the same timeframe, although the Tweets were equally international.

• The media loved it: While Clexa was on air, the entertainment industry provided “The 100” copious accolades and publicity based around the couple. The show has not achieved even a fraction of the same publicity for Bellarke, however.

• The fanbase was unprecedentedly active: Lexa’s death reveals the real size of the lesbian iceberg beneath the water. When Lexa was killed in March 2016, Twitter exploded: “Lexa” was mentioned in 399,000 Tweets, “LGBT fans deserve better” was tweeted more than 280,000 times in just a few hours, and a hashtag calling for the show to be cancelled was tweeted more than 10,000 times. Rothenberg’s Twitter follower count plummeted by more than 15,000 in the space of just a few days. Clexa fans called for a boycott of the show, and the next episode had 140,000 fewer viewers, or just under 10% of the show’s viewership. It became the lowest rated episode in the show’s history, and that doesn’t even capture the untold numbers of US and international fans who don’t have access to broadcast TV who also stopped watching Clexa clips from the show on social video platforms like YouTube.

Conclusion: Clexa fans probably accounted for more than 10% of the show’s viewership (once viewers watching on social video platforms are counted), and the Clexa relationship was indisputably the most popular couple on the show. The producers of “The 100” benefited from this viewership to pump their numbers while Lexa was on, but this courting of the Clexa fanbase then led to a massive backlash against the show when Lexa was killed off because it made the producers seem insincere and cruel, a good lesson for shows considering adding a lesbian storyline. Why was Clexa so popular? It was easy for viewers around the world to access and the characters were strong, powerful women.

PAGE 3 – The telenova, and the rise of lesbian couples on Brazil’s small screen

Clarina, 2014 (“Em Familia,” primetime telenovela in Brazil)

In Brazil, two things are king: soccer and telenovelas. Telenovelas, which are not to be mistaken for soap operas, can average over 40 million viewers a night, and some of the most popular telenovela episodes have been watched by fully half the Brazilian population at the time of airing.

Clara (Giovanna Antonelli) and Marina (Tainá Müller), who together form “Clarina,” are unique among these case studies because their survival as a couple was entirely dependent on their popularity; Brazilian telenovela scripts are written only a week before shooting and are highly responsive to viewer response, so if the Brazilian public had rejected Clarina, their lesbian storyline would have been nipped in the bud. Instead, Clarina gradually won the hearts and minds of viewers and ended up becoming (reportedly) one of the most popular couples in telenovela history. Here’s how Clarina proves the astounding power of lesbian TV couples:

• Its YouTube viewership is mind-boggling: On YouTube, the top two Clarina videos have 11 million and 8.2 million views. In comparison, the two most popular videos for Laerte and Luiza, the star straight couple on the show, have only 3.8 million and 622,000 views. Moreover, the most viewed clip of Clara and her husband Cadu has only 20,000 views. To put these viewing numbers into a different context, the most watched YouTube videos for some of the “greatest” heterosexual couples (per E! Online) are: Carrie and Mr. Big from “Sex and the City”-7.7 million, Jamie and Claire from “Outlander”-3.7 million, Derek and Meredith from “Gray’s Anatomy”-2 million, Luke and Lorelai from “Gilmore Girls”-1.2 million. In another context, 11 million is the population of Greece or Bolivia.

• Viewers preferred the gay to straight pairing: When a poll was conducted on the “Em Familia” website asking viewers to vote for either Cadu or Marina to end up with Clara, Marina took the poll with almost 80% of the vote despite Brazil’s surprisingly homophobic culture.

• It trended globally a lot on Twitter: Hashtags associated with Clarina trended regularly on Twitter during Clarina’s run. Within Brazil, this included 21 different hashtags either demanding Clarina scenes or asking for equal treatment for Clarina with the show’s heterosexual couples. Globally, 10 hashtags-mostly demanding more equality for Clarina-trended. For context, one of these hashtags trended just below “Kim and Kanye” by number.

• Its fandom spanned continents: Although it’s not possible to estimate the size of the international fandom, Asian, American, Italian, and Portuguese Clarina fan groups are also known to exist, while both Antonelli and Müller remarked on the energetic participation of fans in Russia.

• Its actresses won accolades: Antonelli and Müller were both nominated for their roles in the Best Supporting Actress category for Brazil’s Emmy equivalent, the Prêmio Contigo! de TV, although neither won.

Conclusion: In a culture in which telenovelas are an integral part of television viewing habits, for Clarina to be considered “one of the most popular couples” of all time is huge and speaks to how the couple ended up taking on an outsized role on the show. Moreover, 11 million YouTube views of a single Clarina video suggests the unbelievable magnitude of the couple’s international reach (it is also eight times the average viewership of a single episode of “The 100”). Of all the couples in this article, none come close to the social video platform popularity of Clarina. Page 4 – What Syfy got right with WayHaught

WayHaught, current (“Wynonna Earp,” supernatural Western horror on cable network Syfy)

WayHaught, the portmanteau for Waverly and Nicole Haught on “Wynonna Earp,” is a social media juggernaut. Technically, I can’t say that WayHaught got “Wynonna Earp” a second season because that would be a disservice to the amazing acting, writing, directing, etc., on the show…and because I haven’t got solid proof of that…but I will strongly imply just such a thing. The show was on the bubble after season one, but it got renewed. Make your own conclusions.

“Wynonna Earp” is the epitome of a show embracing and celebrating its lesbian pairing and the fanbase responding back with overwhelming support. In fact, there is so much evidence for WayHaught being the primary love story for the show that it’s hard to even find specific datapoints for it. So here are just a few ways that WayHaught overshadows the Wynonna-Dolls-Doc heterosexual love triangle:

• Twitter support is strongest for the WayHaught actresses: Although obviously not all Twitter followers for Dominique Provost-Chalkley (Waverly) and Katherine Barrell (Nicole) are because of WayHaught, most of them are, so it’s one way to gauge WayHaught’s relative popularity on the show. Kat has 67,000 followers and Dom has 65,400, while Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna) has 60,700 followers, Tim Rozon (Doc) has 35,400, and Shamier Anderson (Dolls) has 25,500. For additional context, the official show Twitter handle only has 60,000 followers, meaning that the stars of WayHaught are literally more popular than their own show and every other actor on the show.

• WayHaught has a wide Twitter reach: Even though “Wynonna Earp” is in the off-season, in the last week #WayHaught was used 6,400 times, reaching an incredible 1.2 billion people, according to talkwalker. That’s 1/6 of the world, by population. Only half of the Tweets originated in the U.S. #WynDoc had two mentions during the same period, while #WynDolls had one. This massive reach is in part because WayHaught’s fanbase is so international: on Facebook, there are WayHaught fangroups for Germany, Poland, Italy, Asia, and for Spanish speakers. The only WynDolls Facebook group has 23 members, and there is no group for WynDoc.

• WayHaught fanfic destroys the competition: Wattpad is a free site for people to upload literary content. A WayHaught collection of one shots on the site has had 30,200 views. The only WynDolls story has 182 views, and there are no WynDoc stories. On Archive of Our Own, a fanfic-specific site, the top WayHaught story has 94,512 hits, while I’m not even certain the site has WynDolls or WynDoc-specific fanfic.

• WayHaught is finally starting to make headway in polls: WayHaught won the 2017 Pure Fandom TV Award for Best Ship, although somehow it has missed out on other major polls, possibly because it’s on a cable vice broadcast network.

Social media metrics-based evidence for the intense popularity of lesbian storylines is compelling. That said, all metrics should be taken with a bigger or smaller grain of salt. For example, the number of YouTube views should be taken as a comparative, not an absolute; the number of views is not the same thing as the number of individual viewers. Nevertheless, as comparatives they’re just as powerful.

The meaning of Clexa achieving millions of views and Bellarke only achieving half as many is unambiguous and represents both the size of the Clexa fanbase and the intensity of their viewership. Also, it must be acknowledged that polls are liable to manipulation through the use of bots, which may explain why lesbian couples keep winning the Zimbio March Madness poll. If nothing else, lesbians are determined that their couples win.

Overall, studios should do more to recognize the importance of social video platforms when assessing the popularity of a couple, particularly since lesbian fandoms tend to be highly international and use these platforms as their only way to access a couple. Networks have to release (and track) their lesbian content in order to gauge its success with viewers. If studios are worried about an inability to monetize social video platforms and prefer to restrict content sharing, they should remember that had Globo put the Clarina scenes-and just those scenes-on a controlled site and charged $1 per viewing session, the conglomerate would have made at least $11 million dollars.

At the same time, in full disclosure, not all lesbian TV couples are or will be as immensely popular as the likes of Clexa, WayHaught, or Clarina. While most couples gain at least a small and dedicated fandom, a few, like damp tinder, just don’t spark and catch on with the lesbian community; they end up forgettable duds. However, a show can consciously work to try and ensure that the lesbian couple does catch fire and boost viewership. The more enthusiastic the cast and crew and the better the storyline, the more invested the fanbase. So you’re welcome, Hollywood. Now you know how to grow your viewership. Call me if you want to know the secret of how to create the perfect lesbian pairing that will maximize profits.