Maybe a black & white 'Twilight Zone' is the kind of gimmick cord-cutters need
Saturday brought some big news for fans of Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone reboot.
The show is going black & white. The full-color version will still be there, but a black & white option will be available to anyone who wants to kick it old school and watch the suspense-horror series in a style that more closely mimics the look and feel of the original series.
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It's important to note something here. The Twilight Zone reboot is a CBS All Access exclusive. It doesn't air on TV at all. If you want to watch it, you've got to subscribe to the network's Netflix/Hulu-like streaming service, for which you'll pay a minimum of $7 per month.
Not every show can pull off a black & white gimmick like this, but it certainly makes sense for The Twilight Zone. It couldn't have been terribly laborious or costly for CBS to deliver this alternate viewing format either. An easy win aimed directly at fans, and fans alone.
Even if this specific gimmick doesn't make much sense for other shows, the underlying concept is a smart idea. As the number of cord-cutters continues to rise and individual broadcast networks look for new ways to compete with streaming titans like Netflix and Hulu, niche appeal is going to matter just as much as mainstream appeal.
Think about how CBS All Access pinned its launch to Star Trek: Discovery, another fan-centric series. I'm still not convinced keeping shows like that and Twilight Zone off the network airways is doing CBS any long-term favors, but it's no doubt helped the streaming service.
That said, over time I think we're going to see fewer streaming-exclusive shows, not more. It's costly to produce a whole season of TV, and for the time being services like All Access are more novelty than requirement. Eventually, a majority of viewers will realize they can wait for a season of something to end, pay a few bucks for one month of service, and binge away.
I don't know CBS's financials here, but I can't imagine that's an ideal scenario for the network.
That's where gimmicks come in. If you love The Twilight Zone, maybe you'll want to keep that subscription around a little longer so you can see how the series changes in black & white. Would deleted scenes and alternate endings keep you around? Commentary tracks?
It's not the kind of stuff that would appeal to every viewer, but that's the whole point. There's too much content for any reasonable person to keep up with in 2019, and so choices need to be made. Peppering a service like CBS All Access with fan-pleasing extras could create enough of an edge to convince a steady base of subscribers that they should stick around.
The Twilight Zone going black & white could just be a one-off gimmick, but I'd rather look at it as a trial balloon. As more streaming services compete for your attention, they're going to look for new and unusual ways to keep you on the hook. That's what this feels like.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
