[1] Australian dramedy Please Like Me (2013–17) follows a group of millennial friends as they face sexual identity crises, mental illness, aging relatives, and changing family dynamics. Created by comedian Josh Thomas, Please Like Me premiered on February 28, 2013, on ABC 2. In October 2013, Pivot selected Please Like Me as part of its launch slate of programs. For subsequent seasons, Participant Media, Pivot's parent company, acted as coproducer and distributor. As Pivot targeted a socially conscious millennial audience, Please Like Me fit into the channel's brand. Please Like Me had already found its way to an American audience before it aired on Pivot, however: fans distributed it on Tumblr. Australian viewers promoted the dramedy in a Tumblr-typical way: through GIF sets and clips that center on main character Josh and his coming-out story line. Aware that many fans on Tumblr are always eager to discover new queer-friendly media, foregrounding Josh's story was a strategic choice among Australian Tumblr users eager to share their new favorite show. Episode downloads that circulated via Tumblr enabled American viewers to watch Please Like Me and further spread the word. Despite the existing American fan base, strategic promotion of Please Like Me on Tumblr, and airing new episodes in the United States first, Pivot ultimately could not draw a viable audience for Please Like Me and its other programs. Pivot's final day was on October 31, 2016. Participant licensed the last season of Please Like Me to Hulu for US distribution. While Tumblr has its own limitations (e.g., through Terms of Service), its users are not entangled in the complex corporate relationships of the global TV industry and ultimately offered more reliable access to the program.
[2] Please Like Me is not the first or only international program to find its way to an American audience due to fan distribution or to be the subject of simultaneous formal and informal international distribution. To name just two examples, anime has long been distributed this way, and German soap operas had their moment in the late 2000s (Annett 2014; Hellekson 2012; Schules 2014). Fan distribution in this case means circulation of TV episodes among a community already involved in a conversation about media with queer themes. In this sense, the fan distribution I examine is different from a more anonymous sharing of media on torrent sites, where users may never directly interact. In the case of Please Like Me (and other fan-distributed media), the circulation of episodes happens alongside sharing of GIFs, through episode discussion, and in conversation with other media texts. Please Like Me makes a particularly intriguing case study because of the relationship among formal and informal distribution in terms of platforms, target audiences, and fandom. In terms of platforms, Please Like Me moved from being aired in Australia first to premiering in the United States first, and then back to Australian premieres, all the while being shuffled between SVOD platforms and cable television (outside of the United States and Australia, Please Like Me became available on Netflix in many countries and on Amazon Prime in the UK in 2016, just to make matters even more complicated). As formal distribution streams shifted, fans filled in the gaps, providing consistent circulation and discussion via Tumblr. Moreover, Pivot's target audience of millennials interested in social justice overlaps closely with how Tumblr fandom is often imagined and with how many fans on Tumblr self-identify. Finally, Pivot's decision to set up a Tumblr account and to participate in fan practices like GIF production to promote Please Like Me brought formal and informal distributors together on the same social media platform.
[3] One might expect that Pivot would have benefitted from fans' informal circuit of distribution as their new dramedy was already familiar to and cherished by a core section of their target audience, but Pivot's existence as a niche digital cable channel was too far removed from young people's contemporary viewing practices; according to Jeanine Poggi (2016), it also had difficulty attracting advertisers due to its unrated status. When Pivot folded, Participant Media's CEO David Linde released a statement that explained the company would continue to focus on media "to entertain and inspire social action" but not in the form of cable TV; rather, Participant wants to create "compelling content across all platforms" (Franks and Groves 2016). The reasons remain vague: "the changing media landscape" and the "best interest of all our stakeholders."
[4] It is easiest to unravel the show's complicated distribution by starting from the beginning. While the dramedy was originally destined for ABC 1, ABC's flagship channel, the program moved to the digital channel ABC 2 shortly before its premiere. Press speculation about this move included discussion of ABC 2's younger target audience; others argued that the show's unapologetic queer content was the motivation for the move (Vickery and Devlyn 2013). GIFs and episodes of Please Like Me began circulating on Tumblr almost right away in March 2013. Despite fans' eager embrace of the series, its future beyond season 1 remained uncertain until Pivot stepped in. Josh Thomas went so far as claiming that Pivot saved the program (quoted in Feeney 2014).
[5] Figures 1 through 4 illustrate a typical chain of posts that sets informal distribution in motion: a fan posts a Please Like Me GIF set drawn from early season 1 episodes, receives an inquiry about the source material, and then shares a way to watch the program. When shared files disappear from cloud storage sites, fans also try to provide new links to keep the circulation and access going.
Figure 1. Distribution chain, part 1: request for GIF set. Source: Tumblr (My Big Gay Tumblog). [View larger image.]
Figure 2. Distribution chain, part 2: follow-up Ask about the GIF set. Source: Tumblr (My Big Gay Tumblog). [View larger image.]
Figure 3. Distribution chain, part 3: sharing episode links. Source: Tumblr (My Big Gay Tumblog). [View larger image.]
Figure 4. Distribution chain, part 4: providing new download links when older links become nonfunctional. Source: Tumblr (My Big Gay Tumblog). [View larger image.]
[6] After fans had already circulated Please Like Me on Tumblr for months, Pivot included the program in its first night of programming on August 1, 2013. In an approximation of binge-watching, Pivot aired six episodes in a row (a strategy that Pivot continued with frequent marathons of Veronica Mars [2004–7] and Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1997–2003]). Pivot also made the first episode of Please Like Me available on YouTube in July 2013. In a press release, then-president of Pivot Evan Shapiro characterizes Please Like Me as "the perfect show to launch our network. This show is unique and authentic, which speaks to the quality entertainment that we aspire to present to our target audience." The same press release further claims that PLM "aims squarely at the center of the millennial mindset and life-stage.” Considering the immediate embrace of PLM by Tumblr fandom, Pivot's assessment of PLM's appeal to an audience of 18– to 34-year-olds rings true. The US premiere was advertised through sponsored posts on Tumblr and on a dedicated Tumblr account (while the show's Tumblr is now only accessible from within Tumblr via the site's search function, Pivot's Tumblr account remains publicly accessible). It is unclear whether Pivot was aware of the existing fan base on Tumblr or chose to use Tumblr due to an increasing awareness of the platform as gathering place for fans, an insight that other TV programs began to share around the same time (Willard 2017). It is tempting to speculate that Pivot's decision to acquire Please Like Me was shaped by an awareness of the show's circulation on Tumblr. After all, Pivot offered a variety-style program, HitRECord on TV (2014–), to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's HitRECord community, as a result of its existing online success.
[7] Pivot's engagement with Tumblr remained uneven at best. Averaging only about twenty posts per month, a quota that invested Tumblr users reach daily, Pivot's Tumblr account displays original posts that serve as promotional material and lacks the reblogged posts that dominate interaction on Tumblr, with the occasional exception of a reblog from an affiliated account like the Please Like Me Tumblr. Pivot may have understood that Tumblr is an important platform for reaching out to fans, but their social media team didn't understand how to use the platform in a way that engages fans. This is an odd contrast to Pivot's tagline of "It's your turn" and their encouragement to "join the conversation." Other official Tumblr accounts understood much better how to imitate and adapt fan practices (Willard 2017). Josh Thomas focused on fan interaction on his personal Tumblr account; nearly all his posts are answers to fans' questions. He also seems to have some insight into fandom, replying on January 8, 2014, to a fan's question about where to post their Please Like Me art with "I think everyone agrees Tumblr is the place for fanart" (http://joshthomas87.tumblr.com/post/72652807061/i-drew-fanart-and-i-want-to-show-you-but-where-do). Despite this statement, he did not immerse himself into Tumblr culture, and he abandoned his account after Please Like Me ended. Judging by his active Twitter account, he much prefers that social media platform for fan interaction, self-branding, and raising awareness of LGBTQ issues.
[8] Participant Media coproduced Please Like Me from seasons 2 to 4. Jennie Morris, former executive vice president of acquisitions and operations at Pivot, stated in an interview before the launch of the third season that "it's truly a Pivot original series now. We are the lead network so our executives are very involved in the script notes, the production and the show itself, and Josh is wonderful to work with" (Landau 2016, 43). Along with taking the lead, Pivot also premiered new episodes of seasons 2 and 3, shifting the distribution dynamic between American and Australian fans. Whereas Americans first gained access to the first season of Please Like Me from Australian fans, Australians relied on American fans for early access to seasons 2 and 3 (Please Like Me aired in Australia with a few days' delay).
[9] When Pivot went off the air in October 2016, the continued formal distribution of Please Like Me in the United States remained in limbo for a few months. Season 4 was in postproduction and set to air on ABC1 in November 2016. Once again, American fans turned to Tumblr as their main point of access to the program (figure 5).
Figure 5. Screenshot of collection of American Tumblr users asking for Please Like Me episode downloads. [View larger image.]
[10] Eventually Hulu streamed the fourth season of Please Like Me in January 2017 (after already acquiring the rights to stream seasons 2 and 3 starting in October 2015). On February 2, 2017, Josh Thomas announced on Twitter that there wouldn't be a fifth season because the story had run its course: "Ultimately we decided this because we are really happy with what we've made and feel like it is complete" (https://twitter.com/JoshThomas87/status/827264352239570946).
[11] Younger audiences' disinterest in linear TV is the easiest explanation for Pivot's failure, but it strikes me as too easy. The ratings and social media buzz around ABC's "Thank God It's Thursday" line-up, Freeform's original programs, and Adult Swim demonstrate that young people watch at least some linear TV (although certainly with declining ratings). Moreover, Pivot's decision to focus on programming with social justice and participatory culture elements was unusual and probably attractive to a portion of TV viewers. Boston Globe writer Meredith Goldstein draws on TV scholar Deborah Jaramillo to offer another insight: "The perfect audience for Pivot was actually me—an older-than-millennial who has time to binge-watch old favorites, is open-minded enough to consider new shows, and wants to feel better about watching so much TV" (Goldstein 2016). Interestingly, Goldstein discovered Pivot while channel surfing, not via Pivot's social media outreach.
[12] While Pivot ceased to exist, fans continue to participate in circulating TV programs beyond national borders. The latest international TV hit on Tumblr is Skam (2015–17), a Norwegian teen series that drew fans' attention around the same time that Pivot went off the air. Skam became popular in the same way as Please Like Me did, with a coming-out story line and GIF sets featuring a young white gay couple. Tumblr fandom remains both persistent in its practices and predictable in its preferences.