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Sons of Anarchy fan contest, Sutter's realtime viewing party September 11

By April MacIntyre Aug 2, 2012, 15:28 GMT

Kurt Sutter - "Sons of Anarchy" Season 4 Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals - Arclight Cinemas - Hollywood, CA, USA © Tina Gill / PR Photos

The new landcape for watching TV is vexing for networks and showrunners of popular series who have a rabid following thanks to streaming, DVR's and other means that subvert hard numbers for the ratings bean counters.

Sons of Anarchy showrunner Kurt Sutter's latest blog reveals the new contest for the enormous Sons of Anarchy fandom family: Sutter asks fans to watch the series in real time the night of the premiere and forego the DVR thing, and he will select four lucky fans to come out and meet the cast.

From Kurt Sutter's blog:

"With every passing season, more and more fans are watching Sons off their DVR and other devices.  Such is the future of television.  SOA had a huge jump when the show caught fire between seasons one and two.  We grew almost 90%, which was crazy.  It settled back down the next season; we only had a marginal bump between seasons two and three and then we upticked in season four to become the MOST WATCHED show ever on FX...

...So in SEASON FIVE the challenge is simple: ANY PERCENTAGE of a bump in 18-49 or household viewers and I pick... let's say FOUR viewers to come to Los Angeles and watch an episode of SOA with me, the cast and a few of my closest birds.  We'll fly you out, put you up and turn you on.  We'll also include your visit in the season 5 DVD additional content FAN APPRECIATION CHALLENGE."

"So pass it on to the cyber-universe and all orbiting bodies with Nielsen boxes -- watch September 11th."