The How I Met Your Mother Blog

A while ago Glarkware offered the Robin Sparkles Mall Tour t-shirt. Then they stopped. Now they’ve started again. They also have a legendary “Slap Bet Commissioner” shirt.

Both are limited edition and only available in May. Buy yourss today!

• Robin Sparkles T-shirt
• Slap Bet Commissioner

Of the shows that have returned from the strike How I Met Your Mother has continually done well for CBS. This week’s episode was the highest rated yet for the show. From the Hollywood Reporter:

A guest appearance by Britney Spears on Monday gave the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” its highest rating ever.

“Mother” spiked to a series high 4.5 preliminary rating among adults 18-49, even as the rest of the CBS comedy lineup fell from last week’s record-setting return to original episodes.

The second week of strong “Mother” ratings (10.6 million, 4.5/12) assures the one-time bubble comedy will be renewed for the fall. “Mother” was the fourth-highest-rated show of the evening, and CBS won the night (averaging 12.5 million, 4.4/11).

It’s not official, but I can’t see CBS canceling a show that’s doing so well. This is great news for us fans. Good work to those of you who wrote letters and signed petitions, but at the end of the day it all comes down to ratings and, lucky for us, the numbers don’t lie.

If you’d told me a year ago that Britney Spears would save How I Met Your Mother I’d have laughed in your face. I guess strange things do happen.

Now, for a bit of talking shop. I’ve heard readers suggest they’d be interested in a weekly ratings section, where we can track the shows stats in real time. Is this something you’d like to see?

Bonus points for the first person to get the reference in the phrasing of that poll question.

Pull out your jelly bracelets, your cool graffiti coats, brush your hair like Gretzky and practice jumps on your skateboard, there’s a contest that will help the show get renewed! We first heard about www.savehimym.com last week when I implored all of you to contact CBS to save the show. In addition to donating and signing petitions, now there’s a new, more creative way to show your support.

A parody of the song “Let’s Go to the Mall” has been written and it needs a music video. That’s where you come in. Make a music video to go with the song, upload it to YouTube, then send it in. Additionally, I’d love it if you come back here and left a link to your video in the comments.

Here’s the original song, just to refresh your memory:

Here are the lyrics, set to “Let’s Go to the Mall”:

Let’s Watch CBS
(spoken) Is there anything I can do to get you to renew How I Met Your Mother? How about I…sing you a song!

(music starts)

Let’s watch CBS, everybody!

Come on Nina, Come on Les,
Let’s watch CBS, its sitcoms are the best.
If my favorite show gets canceled, I’m going to scream and shout.
How I Met Your Mother is what this song’s about.

It hasn’t been renewed yet, (Oh no!)
And you know how antsy fans can get. (Oh yeah!)
I really like it. All my friends think it’s so funny.

Chorus:
H-I-M-Y-M is best.
No other sitcom has such zest.
Let’s watch CBS today.

There’s this gal I know of,
She runs CBS.
She hasn’t renewed the show,
And its fate I’d really like to know.
I hope the gang returns, for another season.
Ted, Marshall, Robin, Lily,
Don’t forget Swarley.
The show’s ratings are kind of low,
And DVRs don’t count, I know.
That’s OK, I’m going to watch your network anyway.
I’m going to nag your network ‘til your Upfronts Day.

H-I-M-Y-M is best.
No other sitcom has such zest.
Let’s watch CBS today.

I introduced the show to a couple of friends,
We had a good few hours to spend.
I love Marshall, Barney, and Lily too,
My friends think Robin & Ted are cute.
The other day at the mall, who do I see?
Mr. CBS himself, the network’s Big Cheese.
He said, “Do you really want your new season approved?”
In reply, I got down, to bust a crazy move.

Let’s watch CBS, everybody!

H-I-M-Y-M is best.
No other sitcom has such zest.
Let’s watch CBS today.

Fans and critics love this show!

H-I-M-Y-M is best.
No other sitcom has such zest.
Let’s watch CBS today.

Renew this show, renew this show please
Renew this show, renew this show please
Renew this show, renew this show please
Renew this show, renew this show please
Renew this show, renew this show please
Renew this show, renew this show please
Please, Nina

I think this is a really great idea and a chance to have some fun while supporting the show. The winner of the contest receives seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. Additionally, the winning video, and other entires, will be sent to the top brass at CBS to demonstrate just how many fans the show has.

View the contest page at www.savehimym.com for rules and more details. Feel free to contact me with any questions as well.

Let’s see your submissions!

Last night we saw a repeat of Slapsgiving, one of the best episodes of the show to date. Now, in the wake of the awesomeness, I implore all of you readers and fans to show some support for the show seeing as it’s on the bubble for renewal next year. Readers Ike and Katie have helped me find the appropriate petitions and other platforms for fans to show support. I’m not positive the show is in any actual jeopardy, but until it’s picked up for a forth season showing some support can’t hurt.

Now, onto how you can help.

1. Donate – Fans of Kristin Dos Santos from E! Online’s Watch with Kristin have started a web site collecting donations to help save the show. Proceeds from this site will go toward buying sparklers to mail to CBS to show support for the show. At the time of this writing, they’re half-way to their goal. Go and give a couple dollars today.
2. Sign the petition – ipetitions.com has a “Save How I Met Your Mother” petition that you can sign today. Currently, there are 4,970 signatures. Let’s show that the show has more fans than that.
3. Voice your opinion – Be proactive—reader Katie supplied me with the letter she sent to CBS. Contact them at one of these addresses, which will then find it’s way up the ladder:
   
   • audsvcs@cbs.com,
   • Kelli Raftery kraftery@cbs.com
   • Beth Haiken beth.haiken@tvc.cbs.com

   or via their comment form. Alternatively, send all letters to me (jd@have-you-met-ted.com) and I will send them en-masse to CBS. To accompany the letters, statistics that support the show would be helpful, if any of you find anything that proves HIMYM is a success, send that on as well. I’ll organize it all and send it to CBS as one big call to action.

   Here is Katie’s letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

I recently saw the list of shows that CBS has renewed for the 2008-2009 season, and I was shocked to learn that How I Met Your Mother was not among them. I had to write to ask you to reconsider as you move toward final decisions about the upcoming season.

I am a 26-year-old, college-educated, middle-class viewer; I am, in other words, a member of a demographic cohort much coveted by advertisers. And the only show that my husband and I watch on CBS is How I Met Your Mother.

I find your procedural crime shows unappealing in the extreme. While I will watch the occasional episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine (another Monday comedy that has not been renewed), I find your other sitcoms insipid and unwatchable. I don’t watch your reality programming (e.g. Big Brother, Survivor) either. The only reason that my eyes will be on CBS, and its ads, is if you renew How I Met Your Mother.

The show isn’t a ratings monster, but its ratings are consistent and it repeats well. It does better with younger viewers than the rest of the Monday line-up with the exception of The Big Bang Theory which only does marginally better in overall viewers because of the higher HUT levels at 8:30 PM EST. How I Met Your Mother has a core group of rabid fans (I own the first and second seasons on DVD, have purchased episodes on iTunes, have read the show’s official website, etc.) and significant critical support (unlike many other CBS shows). Last year, Neil Patrick Harris received an Emmy nomination for his work on the show.

While, in light of these characteristics, I believe that the show is a shoe-in for renewal, it must be said that you’ve never treated How I Met Your Mother particularly well: leading off the night is a difficult task; I rarely see advertising for the show; it wasn’t available on iTunes until recently; you didn’t give the hilarious Super Bowl episode the coveted-post game spot; and so on. It has been reported, by TV Guide, that this stems from personal dislike of CBS executives for the show. I surely hope that isn’t the cause for the show’s non-renewal. It obviously isn’t good business practice to pass over the show, in spite of evidence that it should be renewed, simply because one executive doesn’t understand the show or its appeal.

I’m thrilled that How I Met Your Mother will be back in March 27th for 9 more episodes this season. I only hope that at the upfronts in May, you announce that the show will be back for a much deserved, and sure to be legendary, fourth season.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Well put Katie! If you’d like to use her letter, change the personal bits to fit your own details and let CBS know that the show has fans! There’s no way to know if this will work or not but at least it’s effort in the right direction. Remember, be polite—you’ll be taken more seriously that way.

If you find other ways to support the show, post them in the comments or contact me at jd@have-you-met-ted.com. I’ll update this post as new tactics surface.

We’ve all enjoyed 3 seasons of the show, it’s time we stood up and demanded a fourth. If you ever want to meet the mother and see how it all ends, now is the time to support the show.

Apple, as if I didn’t love them enough, has endeared themselves to me even more today. How? Let me tell you.

I don’t have an apartment yet in New York City. That means I have a little extra money floating around. Rather than be wise and invest or save for a place, I’ve decided it’s a better idea to buy myself nice things. The first? An iPod Touch. I hooked it up to my computer today and it’s awesomer than I could have hoped. But things were about to get better.

When I hooked it up to iTunes I got the message that you see above. What better way to see the amazing quality of video on the iPod than with a few free samples? What’s a good TV show to give people? Why, How I Met Your Mother of course. So, having downloaded “Something Borrowed”, I’m even happier with my purchase. Maybe I’ll season pass the whole show so I can watch it on the train each day.

So if you’re thinking about buying an iPod, remember that you’ll get a free ep of How I Met Your Mother when you first sync it up. Enjoy!