Batwoman vs. The Bubble Poll

Today, TV Line released the results from its 2022 "Bubble" Poll, and their coverage of the events left a lot out of the story. It's been said when your community isn't properly represented, it's time to represent yourself. So, here's the complete story.

On April 8th, at 9:00 AM, TV Line posted their annual "Bubble" poll, with a list of shows that have yet to be renewed, and asked fans to vote for the shows they wanted renewed the most; fans could vote for up to four shows at once (one more than was allowed the year prior), and it seemed as though each device was limited to casting their votes a single time. It's worth noting that Batwoman was not pictured in the graphic used for the article's banner. 

By 2:00 PM that day, Batwoman had managed to accumulate just 3.91% of votes, positioning the show as 9th in line. Early voters were likely selecting the max of four shows they'd like renewed. However, the potential to reduce the percentage of votes applied towards Batwoman led many fans to prioritize their energies and focus on the one show - their favorite show. And, as is common for Batwoman fans, campaigns to promote the poll both on Twitter and beyond it grew exponentially. By 10:00 PM that night, Batwoman had jumped up by two spots, and almost a full percent, at 4.81%.

This gradual upward trend continued, almost daily, per the stats below:

• 4/9, 12:30 PM - 4.93% (7th)

• 4/10, 11:30 AM - 5.89% (6th)

• 4/11, 11:30 AM - 6.89% (3rd)

• 4/12, 12:00 PM - 8.24%

• 4/13, 4:15 PM - 9.65%

•  4/14, 4:45 PM - 10.24%

Legacies started off with a strong lead that they held onto from early on, but the volume of promotion coming from fans for shows such as Legends of Tomorrow (who had quickly earned 2nd place - even landing in 1st at one point on April 9th - thanks to an impressive fan campaign that included members of their cast contributing to promotion) made it clear that the game would not be called until it was over. Nonetheless, between 2:00 PM on April 9th and 1:30 PM on April 10th, Legacies took a ginormous leap from 9.22% to 16.32%.  And, by 9:00 PM that night, the show had jumped almost another 2 percentages, and finally crossed over 20% on April 12th. This only added fuel to the fans for Legends and Batwoman.

By 5:19 PM, on 4/14, Batwoman had taken over the 2nd place spot on the poll at 10.73%. At its peak, Batwoman had claimed 11.03% of votes, and never surrendered its 2nd place spot. In many ways, this achievement was a thank you letter to Batwoman's writers, cast, and crew from the fans. 

In their results article, TV Line stated, "as of Friday morning, [our] poll closed with nearly 200,000 votes."  This is 106,000 fewer votes than the poll collected in 2021. And, while there were more shows on this year's poll than the year prior, leading one to think the 200k votes would be spread out between more shows, the top 3 shows for 2022 consumed over 40% of the votes. In 2021, The top 4 shows hadn't accounted for 40% of the votes. 

With the exception of ongoing support and appreciation from the Batwoman Writers Room Twitter account, the fans didn't ask for the show's creators to do more than receive the recognition and appreciation the fans have for them through this demonstration. It was another opportunity for the fandom to stamp out the claim that Batwoman is not considered one of the most socially engaged programs on The CW -  one of the reasons given for selecting the shows that received early renewal. More, fans appeared committed to communicating that no matter what - not being included in the artwork for the poll's article; not being recognized for reaching 2nd place against presumed odds in the byline for the results article or for the strides it took to get there; being pitted against its sister show, Legends, when they in fact collaborate and support each other; receiving hate from season one fans who object to Batwoman being a Black woman; and to the assumption that a show whose primary demographic is by definition a minority but that has consistent and dedicated viewership is not pulling in high "enough" ratings to be worthy of renewal - Batwoman should never be counted out. It is representation that is needed and valued, and lasting change will not take effect if networks choose not to invest in content that is making strides towards progress. 

Kudos to the fans who showed up for The CW shows that stood out in this year's "Bubble" poll, for days of campaigning and voting, unrelentingly. And congratulations to the Batwoman fandom for uniting in the effort to showcase that Batwoman should absolutely be renewed for season 4, and seasons beyond. The team of people working on this show are some of the best around, and this fandom was truly gifted the day that Javicia Leslie was casted as our Batwoman. If one existed, I'd proudly be an official card-carrying member of the Batwoman fan club.