The USA Network show Covert Affairs has drummed up an innovative way to tie Twitter into the show: create accounts for the characters and play out an alternate storyline in short bursts over a six-week run.
For example, actor Christopher Gorham, who is @Chris_Gorham in real life, is Auggie Anderson or @AuggieA_CIA. He tweets back and forth with three other characters from the show with links to mission videos, photos, audio streams and “classified documents” that support the story. All the tweets and media are pulled together on Covert Affair’s page, “Tweetcast: Operation Budapest.”
“The suspension of disbelief is that it’s not the regular Twitter, that when you’re following the Tweetcast, you are becoming a CIA officer and it’s an interoffice Twitter,” explains Gorham in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He says the idea partially originated from his own (real-life) Twitter followers. Fans who follow the characters can help influence in the storyline.
And coming later this month, a Covert Affairs episode will offer a resolution to the Twitter side drama, which in turn encourages tweet fans to watch. Pretty smart.
