The rumor that Supernatural carried out market research about Dean & Castiel has been CONFIRMED
On November 20, 2020, an anonymous individual using a specially created account shared a post on Tumblr in which they describe a market research study they participated in during late 2016. Throughout this post, we’ll refer to this person as their username, @hurdlehoops.
The post (which can be read in full here) details the process of how Hurdlehoops came to participate in this study, and what it entailed.
While some aspects of the post do include minor speculation--such as the possibility that one or more of the writers might have been brought into the adjacent room during the interview process, due to the interview’s proximity to the SPN offices--this speculation is clearly presented as such, and does not affect the reliability of the rest of the information provided.
We’ve listed a bare-bones breakdown of the post below:
Hurdlehoops received an email invitation to participate in an online screener for a market research study
This online screener consisted mostly of demographic questions, with some general questions about TV viewing habits.
Hurdlehoops was contacted for a secondary phone screener
This phone screener was mostly used to confirm the information collected as part of the initial screener, and to determine whether Hurdlehoops was suitable for the study. At the end of this phone screener--
Hurdlehoops was given a homework assignment
This assignment consisted of a series of multiple choice, short answer, and long answer questions about Season 10 of Supernatural, as well as another set of questions about The Big Bang Theory. We will note that while Hurdlehoops states that they wrote full essays for the long answer portion of the homework, this appears to be more than the study asked for at this stage. This did not seem to have any negative effect on the market research organizer’s decision to invite Hurdlehoops to continue.
Hurdlehoops attended the in-person study itself
This was a one-on-one interview which included a further series of demographic questions, followed by viewing footage and DVD extras, and then an in-depth question session regarding Dean and Castiel’s emotions in what is commonly referred to as “The Crypt Scene” from 8.17 Goodbye Stranger. After Hurdlehoops mentioned their read of Dean as bisexual, the questions shifted to focus on Dean’s sexuality and the relationship between the characters. This study took place at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, CA on December 6th 2016, and lasted for over two hours rather than the single hour initially arranged.
In order to help alleviate concern from fandom regarding the veracity of Hurdlehoops’ claims, we have obtained some evidence of the study in question, which we have scrubbed of all personal identifying information and screen captured below:
Confidentiality prevents us from publicly sharing Hurdlehoops’ true identity, the content of the information packets that were provided to them, or any further details beyond those shown in the screenshot above, however we can confirm that Hurdlehoops is known and trusted by members of the Fandom (de)Bunker team, and that the evidence they have shared with us directly supports their claims.
Based on the available information, we consider this rumor CONFIRMED.
A “screener” in this context is a series of preliminary questions used to determine whether or not an individual fits into a range of demographics that are required for the actual study.
If you also participated in this particular study in 2016, or another SPN market research study with a similar focus, we’d be happy to add any additional evidence that you may have to this post.
