Crossover Episode: Talking Online Television Culture With TV Insider Magazine's Social Media Producer Ennica Jacob
The strongest fan bases, the pros and cons of TV Twitter, red carpet interactions and more
If you were around before everyone ditched cable and emptied their pockets for the Netflix and Hulus of the world, you may have gotten familiar with the sight of TV Guide on your coffee table. Gone are the days where most of us are setting our alarms for 8:59 p.m. to ensure we don’t miss the latest episode of our favorite show — but TV Guide has transformed with the times with the introduction of TV Insider Magazine, which focuses exclusively on streamers. We’re so excited to bring you a Q&A with Ennica Jacob, TV Insider Magazine’s social media producer (and friend of this newsletter thanks to the CUNY journalism school). Ennica is a multimedia producer and photojournalist who worked at Insider and CNBC before landing at TVInsider.com. We’ve edited the conversation for length and clarity, and note that we had this conversation back in early September, before the Hollywood writers’ strike ended.
YWSW: Can you tell me a bit about your job?
Ennica: I am the social media video producer for TV Insider Magazine, which is pretty much its own separate entity, but still connected to TV Guide Magazine, which is such a staple when it comes to just television history. I attend different events and I speak to actors and actresses on the carpets, premiere events, all that stuff, as well as kind of just going to different junket interviews to put up the socials like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Facebook. I watch engagement and see what's working, what's not working, and kind of strategize from there.
YWSW: I imagine the strikes have made that difficult. How have they changed your job?
Ennica: I am here for the strike, even though it sucks on the working side of it because, of course the writer strike definitely kind of took out speaking to showrunners and screenplay writers for certain movies and shows. With the actor strike also on top of the writer strike, they're in solidarity with doing no press and no carpet events. So it's really kind of put a halt on having fresh new content when it comes to upcoming shows and it's definitely been a point to think of what we already have video wise that we can at least push to audiences, but also thinking about fresh ideas. Whether it's like a list or opinion-based pieces or burning questions or things we need answered in the next season of a show. It’s kind of like trying to figure out what information we do have and what we can work with to kind of morph into a story or a video piece for now. So it's been a little bit challenging, but it's for a good cause.
YWSW: What kind of video pieces do really well online?
Ennica: People love a good list because everyone loves to argue. Predicting what might come in the next season is also really good. Certain prompts and polls do very well. I think it's kind of just leaving it up into the hands and interpretation of the audience that's really helping drive engagement right now.
YWSW: Can you think of any specific lists that caused a big controversy or any shows that people really like to fight about?
Ennica: Outlander…whoa. The Outlandies are a very strong fan base, and I respect them — they do not play with their period timeline romance drama at all. I think with 911 there was a list of the most catastrophic episodes, and I want to say 13 top cop dramas was good. I did a list about Korean dramas that got good traction. I love K dramas so it was nice to see that we have an audience for that. A lot of canceled shows, so like with Nancy Drew ending, [the fans] would love a new season. They’re so upset about Walker: Independence ending. And Netflix’s Warrior Nun ending got such a Twitter uproar that got it renewed. You won’t believe how many fans are out there for certain shows, and they will fight for the show.
YWSW: How do you think social media in general has changed our way of watching TV?
Ennica: There are pros and cons. The cons of course would be the fact that because if it's not a network show — like if it's like something on Netflix — if you binge it all in one day or within like 48 hours and you go on Twitter, you can find at least a good couple 100 people who probably did the same thing and are already talking about it and it kind of takes away from the people who haven't seen it yet. But with [events like] “Succession Sundays,” it's just so fun to see how other people interpret an episode. It gives a forum of conversation and community because we all have this one show that we love and we have our own villains and also our own anti-heroes or heroes within it. It allows us to kind of come together on a particular subject, and not everything's going to be black and white — there are going to be some gray areas. And of course, even if the writers wrote it that way for gray areas, we kind of create our own because like we all already have our own opinions, but then we're also seeing what other people are talking about. So it kind of makes us either sway how we view it or maybe even harden our stance. It makes it more engaging to speak with people about something that you love. That's important, especially when it comes to art in general.
YWSW: Watching TV is also so much more than it used to be in that you consume so much more content around it, like those lists you were talking about.
Ennica: It is very overwhelming! It can be so overwhelming, like just sitting in my office, you won't believe how many shows you're recommended to watch because everybody's watching something different or we're all watching the same thing and want to talk about it but somebody else hasn't watched it. My whole office loves Good Omens — I have not watched it yet. But it kind of forms a camaraderie because we have these similar tastes and even something that we thought we wouldn't be inclined to watch, we end up watching just because of a recommendation or seeing a conversation on a certain episode on social media.
YWSW: I’m sure you see conversations about so many shows and I doubt you can watch them all. Do you get FOMO?
Ennica: Yes, I do. I try to take it one step at a time because I have my moments where I have nothing to watch, like right now is one of those moments. I'm trying to catch up on shows that either have an upcoming second season or I've been recommended like years ago just never watched. So I'm just now finishing Loki because I never really watched it and of course I saw the trailer for season two. I definitely get FOMO at times but — but also sometimes I rather you just tell me [what happens] at this point. Like Outlander as much as I do want to start, I don't think I have it in myself to go through seven seasons of that. You take on what you can handle.
YWSW: Has your job taken out any of the joy out of TV?
Ennica: In terms of being on social media, it gets annoying. Since I have to be on social media for work, I don't want to be on there just for leisure anymore. But as a viewer, no. It’s refreshing. Especially now that Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it is lawless, it’s refreshing to see — at least on our work Twitter — how people take in and digest shows because they are really very passionate about it, whether it's Jeopardy! or it's Dancing with the Stars. You won't believe how many people are willing to have a certain conversation about certain shows just because it's nostalgic for them or they like the structure of it or they don't agree with the politics of it. It's nice to see that people really do go hard for what they love.
YWSW: Ok please indulge me and talk about red carpet stuff. Do you have any celebrity interactions in particular you remember or have you ever really fangirled over someone you’ve met?
Ennica: There was one great interaction I had with Britne Oldford from Dead Ringers because usually I’m one of the only Black girls on these red carpets and she loved my hair. She was like “girl, I loved your hair” and I was like “girl I love YOUR hair.” Tom Holland was very sweet, and now I know he’s a New Girl stan, so that was cute. I got to talk to Rachel Weisz and she’s a GOAT among GOATs. I watched The Mummy countless times so it was great to talk to her.
YWSW: What are your all-time favorite shows, or shows that you go back and watch all the time?
Ennica: A show I go back to all the time would be Grey’s Anatomy season one to about 13 — the season right after the plane crash, that’s where I stopped. After that, you lost me. Once Yang left, you lost me. Sex and the City of course, that’s my comfort show. I can watch that over and over; it's like my palate cleanser. I love to rewatch Black Summer, a zombie show on Netflix. I love how it’s shot and how it’s from different perspectives and you never know who is actually going to live through the episode and who is going to die. I love when people take that whole “don’t get too comfortable with the character because they might not be here too long” approach, like Game of Thrones. Like I said, I love K dramas, so I watch a lot of those. I love competition shows because I’m naturally competitive. The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Potomec — those are my favorites because it’s ridiculous what these women will argue about. I love anime so I always rewatch certain anime.
YWSW: What are you going to watch next?
Ennica: I’m leaning towards FROM on Amazon Prime, Hijack on Apple and Special Ops: Lioness on Paramount.