​This season, NBC’s Undateable became the first scripted series to air live for an entire season in more than 20 years. While the idea has several implications, one major result is that it’s giving NBC two (sometimes rather different) shows to air on Friday nights, with double the marketing challenge but also double the exposure.

The NBC show, based on the book Undateable: 311 Things Guys Do That Guarantee They Won’t Be Dating or Having Sex, stars comedians Brent Morin, Chris D’Elia, Ron Funches and Rick Glassman in a sitcom that happens to air live on a weekly basis. The first two seasons of the show were taped in front an audience, but the network went a different way with its sole comedy to survive last season for this time around.

The East Coast gets the first telecast, with audiences weighing in on what they liked online, with the West Coast to follow. These fragmented audiences see two different versions of similar jokes, according to Vulture, especially because is full of comedians who tend to ad lib.

Those ad libs are more common in the second airing, shown to the West Coast, after the cast has performed the show once already and became comfortable with the script. West Coasters then often get to see a freer version of that script in their second take.

This means a few things for NBC, including a big marketing decision to make. Which show do you market—both? Neither?

The live format is tricky also because no matter how the network presents the show, there remains the fact that the show is really two different airings, and that leaves some audiences feeling left out. The cast does everything it can to get viewers engaged, from onset concerts to guest stars to social media breaks, with that promotional effort coming largely from the cast and crew each week in order to get the show to trend.

All in all, the fight over which coast gets the better show is working out for them, because the more people pose that question online, the more people are seeing the show.

It’s all part of NBC’s larger live mentality, growing this year with Undateable, but continuing this winter with its live musical in The Wiz.

Read more at Vulture.

Brief Take: Marketing a show without footage is a tough enough challenge, but promoting a show where the script may change from one hour to the next takes that challenge to the next level.

Image courtesy of NBC

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