With the age of the passive TV viewer all but over courtesy the rise of social media and mobile technology, producers continue to look for ways to hold and engage their increasingly fragmented audiences across multiple platforms.

To this end, the Vancouver-based talk show formerly known as Urban Rush has rebranded itself as The Rush and taken a page out of the playbooks of other TV shows by presenting the show to a live audience.

But in a twist fitting a lower-budget talk show in the digital age, The Rush is live streaming online via www.livestream.com, allowing audiences to view from their computers or mobile devices both nationally, and, as hosts Michael Eckford and Fiona Forbes (pictured) have found, internationally.

While The Rush is known for its extensive use of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus among others, Eckford cautions that a successful social media strategy requires predictability to feed viewer demand.

“[Being consistent] is really key to success in everything. People [also] have an expectation that when they go to YouTube 24 hours after the show they’re going to find something new, or every hour on our Facebook page they’re going to find something new,” he says.

In addition, says Eckford, the social media content has to be different from what viewers see on TV or online during the show, and has to maintain the tone of the show

“When [Fiona and I] are populating content on Facebook, when we’re sending out Tweets, when we’re doing all the social media stuff we have to be involved in it, because the show is a reflection of our humour and interview [styles],” he says.

To further integrate audiences, the show is taking advantage of Livestream’s chat feature, allowing viewers to participate by asking guests questions.

“When we get a high profile guest in, we’re going to ask them to take a few minutes after we do our interview for TV, to just go and spend five minutes answering questions from the livestream audience,” says Eckford.

Yet while The Rush makes heavy use of social media, Forbes says one goal hasn’t changed.

“We’re just hoping that all the social media platforms we’re using are feeding back to eyeballs on the screen,” she says.

“We’re looking at it as a way to grow our audience and include them so they feel like they own a part of our show,” she continues.

“At the end of the day we’re still a TV show, so we have to get ratings and we have to resonate with our TV viewers across Canada,” adds Eckford.