I’ve been on a show that introduced me by my first and last name. I’ve been on a show (several shows, actually) that introduced me by my first name only. The difference in the amount of harassment/unsolicited contact between the two experiences is night and day. Please don’t give the audience our last names. It brings nothing extra to the audience except an opportunity to be creepy.
In the social media era, I totally get it. In a similar vein, news outlets like to use tweets that have gained traction, to help further whatever headline. However, it’s never tweets they invited the public to use via a specific hashtag. Instead they simply searched a keyword associated with the headline, and cobble a story out of a dozen related tweets. Not only is it lazy, but I’ve seen and experienced the backlash associated with doing so. It never drives the discussion the way they think it would.
Going back to your point, why do I need your full name? Although “Jeopardy” champs become rock stars in their own right, most shows don’t have returning champions anymore, so I’m really only rooting for someone for the episode. I don’t need to know a last name for that, and I’m not gonna lose sleep because I don’t know the last name of Rebecca who won $40,000 on the Money Cards.
