Three shows that that were hot topics on social media in January 2019

R. Kelly, Fyre Festival, You Netflix
Surviving R. Kelly, Fyre Festival, You Netflix

In the month of January, where cold Canadian winters and holiday credit card bills come in, the best thing to do is stay indoors.  It’s up to you what you want to do. 

You can play video games. You can catch up on some good reads. You can watch a variety of programs on your streaming devices. Or you can simply just fornicate 😍. 

If you choose to consume some content into February, here are three recommended shows you should watch that had social media buzzing.

Surviving R. Kelly

R. Kelly is a monster.

Legendary R&B singer R. Kelly’s controversial docuseries kicked off 2019 with a bang.  Surviving R. Kelly was executive produced by filmmaker and music critic Dream Hampton.  The docuseries revisited Kelly’s infamous history of having sexual relations with minors. 

Multiple victims including his own wife were interviewed, sharing their traumatic accounts with the ‘Pied Piper.’  The three-time Grammy winner’s scandalous past were brought up from stories as old as 25 years ago.  Most notably his marriage to the late Aaliyah, who was of under age at the time. 

Despite being cleared in 2008 on child pornography charges, Kelly still found himself in hot water repeating his sexual behaviour.  It is believed that he is currently running a sex cult on his properties and holding women captive.

Trailer for Surviving R. Kelly

The three-night, six-hour series debuted on January 3 and averaged 2.1 million viewers on the Lifetime channel. The bigger story came out of all of this was the impact it had on social. It was a trending topic (#MuteRKelly) that led to many R. Kelly collaborators distancing themselves from the disgraced singer. RCA Records, his long-time record label recently dropped him.

Public opinion has waned on the 52-year-old, who plans to pursue legal action against the creators of the docuseries. But the jury is out, R. Kelly’s once wholesome image is more tarnished than ever. Had social media been more prevalent in the early 2000’s around the time his child pornography charges became headlines, his career could have been derailed back then as well.

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In My Feelings Challenge

Drake - In My Feelings
Drake – In My Feelings

Without a doubt, the biggest song of the summer has been Drake’s “In My Feelings” record.   How this tune rose in popularity can be credited to social media influencer/comedian Shiggy.  The 25-year-old born Shaquille Mitchell posted the #DoTheShiggy dance challenge on his Instagram account and the catchy chorus paired with Shiggy’s dance moves ushered in thousands of  creative submissions.  Let’s take a look at some of the big ones.

Shiggy posted the first #DoTheShiggy aka  #InMyFeelings challange

NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. was the first celebrity to jump on board

R&B singer Ciara & her NFL hubby Russell Wilson made it cool for couples to do the Shiggy

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Will Smith is using Social Media to re-introduce himself to a new generation with great success

Will Smith

Entertainer Will Smith unquestionably is one of the most popular and successful actors since the early 1990’s.  The rapper turned actor gained fame on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air sitcom for six seasons, before transitioning into one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars.

However, in recent years his star has dimmed a bit.  Questionable movie roles and lack of audience interest finally caught up to Smith.  His days of grossing $100 million+ for eight straight films in the 2000’s were long gone.  Fast forward to 2018 and the movie industry has a new generation of fresh faces that have exploded onto the scene.  Even an established, charismatic and charming personality like Will Smith has seen his fair challenges.  The two-time Oscar nominee found his career at a crossroads with not so stellar box office receipts in recent years.

Instead of fading off into the sunset and walking away from the movie industry, Smith recently turned to social media to remind fans about the Will Smith brand.  Let’s look at what he’s done with digital in just a few short months.

Leverages social media influencers

On the December 14th, 2017 taping of the Ellen show, Will Smith promoted his new Netflix film, Bright. With the assistance of day time talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres, she playfully got Smith up to speed with how to use Instagram and take the best images.   One of Will’s signature traits is his humility, being able to make fun of himself on screen and in this case, he demonstrated it flawlessly.  It also didn’t hurt to have Ellen’s combined social media presence of over 180+ million followers help welcome Will to the ‘gram.

A little over one week later, Will Smith teamed up with YouTube star Lilly Singh aka IISuperwomanII to help produce a comedic video on Internet lingo.  The playful sketch saw the Independence Day actor poke fun of himself again, learning the ins and outs of social media language that his children Jaden and Willow use on a regular day basis.

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