#SaveMacGyver Is Blowing Up on Social Media and Beyond

On April 7th CBS announced that season 5 of MacGyver will be the show’s final. And I was truly devastated hearing this news.

All signs pointed to the show being renewed, what with the show having good ratings, winning the Fridays at 8 pm time slot for 13 weeks straight, and regularly helping CBS win the night in the demo and total viewers. But, alas, CBS opted not to renew the show.

Many speculated that the situation that was reported last July about the show’s former showrunner Peter Lenkov creating a toxic on-set environment and outright bullying the show’s lead Lucas Till might have something to do with it.

But CBS hired a new showrunner for season 5, Monica Macer, who not only made leaps towards creating a healthier, more positive work environment but had also rejuvenated the show itself by creating storylines that felt fresh and new.

Add the fact that the network has canceled two other big shows this year, NCIS: New Orleans and Mom, it’s really hard to say what the real reason why MacGyver got axed is.

One thing is for sure, though, the cancelation was sudden and abrupt, leaving the cast and crew suffering once again. This time being put out of work without any warning.

Luckily, fans of MacGyver viewed the cancelation not as a defeat but as the time to stand up and start fighting for the show and its diverse cast and crew.

And fight, they did.

Now, more than 3 weeks later, their efforts to bring back MacGyver are seen all over social media. And are even starting to trickle into the real world.

So, I thought I break down all that is happening with the #SaveMacGyver campaign and how you can get involved to help bring back the show.

It all started with paperclips

Paperclips have become one of the defining symbols of MacGyver. Often used in promotional materials, social media posts, and even being featured on the show itself. How many times have we seen our lovable genius Angus MacGyver mess around whit paperclips while listening to the latest mission brief? So it’s no wonder that fans of MacGyver started there.

One by one people started sending boxes of paperclips to CBS’ offices in LA. And as of right now over 350 thousand paperclips have found a new home with CBS.

But fans of the show aren’t stopping there. I hear that an even bigger round of paperclip-sending campaign is in the works. And this time it’s more centralized. So, if you want to join in, check out the tweet below!

The #SaveMacGyver petition

Next came the Save MacGyver petition on change.org which is still going strong.

As of writing, the petition has gathered over 23 thousand signatures. And with the next goal being set at 25 thousand and the signature count growing quickly, it shouldn’t take long for the petition to reach that milestone.

So if you want to help #SaveMacGyver, go sign the petition! I already did and every signature counts!

Tweeting up a storm

As any fandom will tell you, Twitter is a powerful tool both when it comes to supporting your show and trying to save it.

So, as soon as the cancellation news broke, fans flocked to Twitter to first express their disbelief and then sound the battle cry. And very quickly the #SaveMacGyver hashtag was created and the fight began.

In the last three weeks, there have been over 300 thousand tweets with the #SaveMacGyver tag and that number is only growing.

Therefore, if you want to be part of the #SaveMacGyver movement, tweet, and retweet using the hashtag. The more we tweet the louder we are. And the louder we are the more likely CBS or some other network or streaming service will hear us and decide to save the show!

The fandom’s charitable endeavors

But it’s not just paperclips, signatures, and tweets, the MacGyver fans are also flexing their charitable muscles.

Since cancer research is near and dear to the show’s lead character Angus MacGyver’s heart, the fans decided to honor him, his late dad James MacGyver and the show as a whole by raising money for Cancer Research Institute that funds breakthrough research all around the world that has already lead to the development of a new class of life-saving cancer treatments called immunotherapy.

That’s right, Jennifer Bauer organized this fundraiser to benefit Cancer Research Institute on behalf of the MacGyver fans.

And as of writing the fans have raised over a thousand dollars already.

The goal is 4 thousand. But MacGyver fans are a special bunch so I have no doubt that that goal will be reached sooner rather than later.

If you want to help, donate, if you can, or share the fundraiser with others in your circle.

Oh, the billboards

The most recent development in the campaign to #SaveMacGyver are billboards that have been popping up all over the place.

Fans have been raising funds for billboards, ads, and other ways of promoting the campaign since April 15.

The fundraiser has already surpassed its initial 5 thousand dollar goal, and the fruits of the fans’ labor are here.

Currently, there are 2 billboards up in Los Angeles and one billboard in Times Square, Chicago, Atlanta and Arizona. And they are glorious!

So, if you want to be part of making these billboards happen, check out the GoFundMe fundraiser for helping #SaveMacGyver.

Let’s save MacGyver

Lastly, if you’re still not sure how to help with the efforts of bringing back MacGyver, you can always go to savemacgyver.com and see all the options.

Right now, for example, they are doing MacGyver Week on the site where each day the fans are doing a different, fun, MacGyver-related activity and sharing them on the site.

They also have a list of all the news articles that have featured the #SaveMacGyver efforts from Forbes to CNN, Screen Rant, and more.

Even the cast is in awe about all that the fans are doing to save the show. It also means that they have seen everything that is being done and hopefully, they are sharing it with people at CBS as well. Which means that we have even more of a reason to keep going.

So, let’s keep going, let’s #SaveMacGyver!

The louder we are the harder it is for the networks to ignore us.  And the more likely it is that season 6 of MaGyver becomes a reality!