CBS allowed fans to choose the ending to last night’s episode of Hawaii Five-O, and the brilliantly-innovative move proved successful as people on the East Coast and West Coast ultimately chose different killers.
As we detailed in our preview yesterday, CBS gave viewers the option of picking one of three suspects involved in the murder of a college professor. They could go to the CBS website or Twitter to vote for the victim’s boss (#theboss), teaching assistant (#theTA) or a student (#thestudent). Midway through the show, those tuning in were promoted to choose one of the three, and then the votes were tallied live to determine which ending would be used.
SPOLER ALERT: It appears as if folks on opposite ends of the country saw the murder plot play out differently, because it was the boss who was arrested in the first airing. A few hours later, it was decided that the student was guilty.
The coolest thing about this stunt — and I mean that in a good way — is that CBS is making available all three endings (see below). This way viewers can watch the other two that didn’t air in their part of the country. As you can see, it took some creative writing, acting and editing to pull this off.