Never underestimate the power of a viral TikTok. A viral TikTok (actually, multiple viral TikToks) got a bunch of Mormon wives to become the number-one-watched show on Hulu. A viral TikTok series exposed a wild celebrity curse, lest it one day be broken. And, back-to-back viral TikTok sounds might get the first female president in the United States elected into office. Now, thanks to one very infectious TikTok dance, comedian and actor Brian Jordan Alvarez is harnessing the power of the chronically online to save his first-season TV series, The English Teacher.
If you haven’t yet heard of the FX show, let me be the first to inform you that it has no relation to the 2013 Julianne Moore vehicle of the same name (IDC what Rotten Tomatoes says, my girl Julie is lovely in everything). The 2024 comedy-drama follows an English teacher (duh) named Evan Marquez who has to balance his personal life while teaching a bunch of chaotic high schoolers in Austin, Texas. Let’s look (respectfully) at Brian Jordan Alvarez’s TikTok dance campaign to stream The English Teacher might just change the course of television as we know it?!?
Brian Jordan Alvarez’s TikTok Dance
@brianjordanalvarez♬ afilmbykirk – ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ
Brian is no stranger to TikTok (before I knew he was a Real Actor™ I was deeply infatuated with his impressions of a Southern real estate lady on the app) so it makes sense that he jumped on a trending sound when trying to get the word out about his show. The real stans will recognize the audio is a deep cut featuring Gilmore Girl‘s Kirk Gleason. Remember that time Kirk debuted an incredibly bizarre black-and-white indie film at the movie theatre where he broke out into interpretative dance to impress his lovers’ parents? (If your answer is no, you need to stream Gilmore Girls ASAP.) Brian started posting the ironic thirst traps/Tony-worthy art performance pieces on October 12 and hasn’t stopped since.
@brianjordanalvarez♬ afilmbykirk – ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ
As his dance moves (just as seductive as Kirk’s, TBH) started picking up steam he kept telling fans to stream his show. In a matter of a week or so, his silly little campaign has already started working. Multiple comments have said because of Brian’s unexpected shirtless hip thrusts that are both hot and absurd at the same time, they are willing to tune into this “officially hot person’s” primetime TV drama. Now, The English Teacher has reportedly jumped from number 14 to number 11 on the Hulu streaming charts. While that data is still coming in, and a season 2 greenlight hasn’t been determined, it looks like BJA’s goofy Magic Mike cosplay has gotten the cool kids talking about his labor of love, and that’s half the battle, isn’t it?
@brianjordanalvarez Replying to @MeggsHerzy ♬ Fleshless hand – ML Buch
Are unplanned internet moments going to replace traditional marketing?
@betweenusgirlies What’s your favorite TikTok Phenomenon show? #relatable #tiktok #euphoria #whitelotus ♬ original sound – Between Us Girlies
If season 2 of The English Teacher does get greenlit (crossing my fingers for you, king!), this may be the strongest case yet of a viral internet moment being a more strategic marketing tool than the hundreds of thousands studios spend on billboards and commercials. We’ve all seen hopeful TV stars try to get Twitter hashtags trending to save their characters from being canceled. (The “Whiskey Cavalier Fully And Finally Canceled” lore will forever live in my brain.) Similar social media campaigning was pushed for One Day At A Time by the showrunners, who hoped to finish out work on their unproduced episodes. But, given that neither of those series was brought back to life from the dead, it seems like it takes more than a little internet buzz to work a resurrection miracle that extends to traditional media.
The shows that have recently popped off the hardest on TikTok — translating into verifiable results — have been completely unpredictable. Like when Gen Z randomly got hooked on Gossip Girl, making it a top-watched show on Netflix out of the blue (despite the reboot not tickling any generation’s fancy). They might be cringed out by Carrie Bradshaw, but her weekly appearance as an inescapable audio or Twitter meme has kept Sex and the City relevant for years now, arguably more than And Just Like That. Shows that are already dominating the mainstream, like White Lotus or Euphoria, become fodder for millions of scrolled-upon TikTok theories that ultimately deliver a hefty amount of ratings from an audience that might not have cared to engage otherwise. I’m truly convinced Marlo Hampton’s “today drained me” clip being one of the biggest TikTok sounds of that year single-handedly renewed her contract on The Real Housewives for season 15.
@joegunn♬ original sound – Joe Gunn
Basically, TikTok is the new high school cafeteria, sending pop culture sponges home to soak up whatever the lunch table was raving about that day. Unfortunately for the big wigs running Hollywood, the magic of these viral moments is that they take off organically. The algorithm pointed BJA’s videos in the right direction (horny theatre kids with elite senses of humor) and now his low-key hit is garnering high-key attention. I have a feeling encouraging TV talent to try and make this happen more often (just like record labels want singers as big as Adele to try and get freaky on TikTok) is totes going to be a thing now. But mark my words: there will likely be a lot of cheugy (honestly, using the word cheugy is cheugy IMO, but whatever) swings and misses along the way.
