History Main / RatingsStunt

* In the short-lived lawyer drama ''Civil Wars'', ABC tried to drum up interest by having lead actress Mariel Hemmingway [[http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,312126,00.html appear completely nude.]] While Hemmingway was clearly naked on screen, the scene itself (where Hemmingway's character was posing for a fashion shoot) used posing, lighting and camera angles to ensure nothing more than slight sideboob and upper thighs were shown.

* The first few episodes of ''Series/DrewCareysImprovaganza'' features Wayne Brady as a guest performer.

* Donald Trump tried this by hinting an potential run for President on ''Series/TheApprentice''. The stunt backfired badly, as the ratings went down. [[HilariousInHindsight In 2015, he finally got around to doing so.]]

* A most infamous ratings stunt was ''Franchise/RoboCop'' arriving in Wrestling/{{WCW}} to save Wrestling/{{Sting}} from Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen.

* ''Series/OddSquad'' has been the victim of this with Odd Squad Saves the World, which was repeatedly hyped up as an hour-long action-packed movie event by ''Creator/PBSKids'', and the promo for it was styled as such. Fans were disappointed, however, when the "movie event" turned out to just be four 11-minute episodes played back-to-back to make up an hour. What was more, they hyped up the episode "Rise of the Hydraclops" (as well as the other three episodes) as [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt some big event that would end the world,]] when really they were episodes in which the enemy was destroyed with a [[WeaksauceWeakness Weaksauce Weakness]] and never threatened the actual existence of the world, [[TheHerosBirthday the boss had a]] [[SurpriseParty surprise party,]] two agents [[SelfServingMemory duke]] [[RashomonStyle it out]] [[Series/TheXFiles X-Files]]-style, and an episode [[DancingTheme where dancing is]] [[LaserGuidedKarma the overall key to beating the enemy.]] It garnered about 30 million streams of the show and bumped up the ratings.

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Quest for Ratings". The boys, hosting a news programme on school TV, get soundly beaten by Craig's "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens", so they decide to sex it up not unlike cable infotainment shows. Craig ups it by giving the animals hats. The boys up it by advertising and showing that [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs Craig was high on cough-syrup when he made it]]. Eventually, the boys pack it in when they realize they have to pull stunts week after week.

* Parodied in the reboot of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', in which new villain, Kinga, decides to marry Josh (the new subject) in a blatant bid to boost their ratings. [[MoneyDearBoy She wants the show to be ultra-successful so she can sell it]] to Creator/{{Disney}} for a billion dollars, not realizing that [[TechnologyMarchesOn streaming services don't work that way]].

** The 200th episode of the show was advertised to be the end of the series, much like the ''[=SpongeBob=]'' example above. But it wasn't the end-the episode revealed that there was still more to come. Also, fans who usually hated the show really enjoyed the episode, which contained a few [[AffectionateParody affectionate parodies]] of other shows and several [[ShoutOut shout-outs]] to both the fandom and the haters.

** The episode "[[GagBoobs Large Marge]]" was obviously made to appeal to the more perverted viewers.

** One of the most iconic stunts in Brazilian televison was the shopping mall in ''Torre de Babel'', the 1998 soap opera was disliked and was not doing well in ratings, their idea to save it was rewrite the script to include an explosion in a mall, which became the main focus of the soap opera after that, it gave the story a new mystery that was only solved in the last episode, the disliked characters died in the explosion, and the comic relief Jamanta got a new catchphrase "Jamanta didn't die", the stunt worked, but it also became a symbol of contrived unplanned changes to boost ratings.

* In ''Series/BigBrother 13'' of the U.S. series, famous duos made a return to the game. They were promised to make it to the Jury, and were edited to be the [[SpotlightStealingSquad sole focus of the show]]. The eight new people they're competing against were cast as sacrificial lambs, intentionally left OutOfFocus (at best) and made to be complete villains (at worst) so that the fans on the boards wouldn't miss them. The returnees meanwhile got the lion's share of screentime ''and'' become the targets of benevolent editing. When things started going the newbies' way, the producers stepped in, introduced a "twist" and a series of events that benefited them and "only" them while throwing challenges that ''one of them has competed in before'' to make sure that one of them would win. The stunt actually seemed to ''work''.

* Think about this -- a season of ''Series/BigBrother'' wherein famous duos make a return to the game. They were promised to make it to the Jury, and are edited to be the [[SpotlightStealingSquad sole focus of the show]]. The eight new people they're competing against are cast as sacrificial lambs, intentionally left OutOfFocus (at best) and made to be a complete villain (at worst) so that the fans on the boards won't miss them. The returnees meanwhile get the lion's share of screentime ''and'' become the targets of benevolent editing. When things start going the newbies' way, the producers step in, introduce a "twist" and a series of events that benefits them and "only" them while throwing challenges that ''one of them has competed in before'' to make sure that one of them would win. Dethroning Moment of Suck that's a big TakeThat to such fans of the show? Sad thing is...it actually happened. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...Big Brother 13 of the U.S. series. The sad thing is? It actually seemed to ''work'', causing many fans to be curious on how the worst season managed to get higher ratings. Some people have theorized that several producers RageQuit and went to a similar show called ''Glass House''.