Fox Takes Nationwide Spacetime Odyssey

03.05.2014

Fox's "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" premiered in 10 cities at once on Tuesday, March 4, airing simultaneously coast to coast at 10 different planetariums, science centers and museums. That was followed by a live Q&A session with the show's creators originating from Los Angeles' Greek Theatre and distributed to the above sites via satellite.

For the event, Fox transformed the Greek into the "Cosmos Pavilion," a blacked-out room with twinkling lights on all sides that mimicked the night sky. In New York, fans stood under the actual night sky, waiting in line in below-freezing temperatures to file in to the IMAX Theater at the Natural History Museum.

Once the seats were packed, the lights dimmed and Joe Earley, Fox's COO and PromaxBDA co-chair, took the stage to introduce the program. Earley welcomed writer and executive producer - who previously worked with her late husband, , on the original "Cosmos" - to the stage. Earley also encouraged the audience to take to Twitter, using hashtag #CosmosLive, throughout the event.

"We don't need Ellen and Meryl Streep to break Twitter tonight," he joked, referencing Sunday night's highly rated Oscars broadcast. The screening went off without a hitch as did the Q&A simulcast. Once the episode finished, Earley re-introduced Druyan, along with the show's host Neil deGrasse Tyson, producers Seth MacFarlane and Mitchell Cannold, director Brannon Braga, and co-producer Jason Clark. The group answered audience queries from each of the nine satellite screening locations, getting questions from fans at science centers as far-away as Singapore as well as from Twitter and Facebook fans who tuned in to a live-stream after the episode.

In New York, the #CosmosLive Twitter stream appeared on the theater screen alongside the panel with the tweets serving as proof of audience excitement about the series and the opportunity to engage with show creators.

Even the panel seemed impressed with each other. Executive Producer Seth MacFarlane, of "Family Guy" fame, was at one point so caught up in one of deGrasse Tyson's answers that he seemed to forget he was being broadcast live: "You just f***ing blew my mind," he exclaimed.

"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" premieres for general audiences on Sunday, March 9, at 9 p.m. on multiple Fox Networks, including Fox and the National Geographic Channel. Following the premiere, it will air Sundays on Fox and Mondays on National Geographic Channel.

Brief Take: Fox is using all of its assets to reinvigorate a popular and well known brand with "Cosmos," combining the historical name with a more recent name in pop culture, Neil deGrasse Tyson.