Supernatural vs. Beliebers

The Supernatural vs. Beliebers fan war was a conflict between fans of the television show Supernatural and fans of singer Justin Bieber, which was prompted by a tweet Jared Padelecki (actor who portrayed Sam Winchester) made at Justin. Angry Beliebers called for a boycott of Supernatural, which was airing its 9th Season. Thus, the two groups of fans started to feud on platforms such as tumblr and twitter, with Supernatural fans on tumblr specifically rallying both their own community as well as other fandoms to participate in mass-watching the next episode of the show. Needless to say, the boycott was not successful (and it is unclear how much overlap there would have even been between the two groups in the first place). 
== The Inciting Incident ==
On January 14, 2014, Justin Bieber became involved in a scandal known as "Egg-Gate" that resulted in police raiding his home in Calabasas, California in order to try and connect Bieber to the egging of a neighbor's house that occurred on January 9th. During the raid, police discovered cocaine and arrested rapper Lil Za, who was a guest at Bieber's residence, for the possession of the drug. https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/14/showbiz/ent-justin-bieber-vandalism-probe/index.html https://www.eonline.com/news/499420/justin-bieber-egg-gate-harry-styles-kylie-jenner-and-more-stars-tweet-about-police-crackdown https://www.eonline.com/news/499703/jared-padalecki-slams-justin-bieber-on-twitter-beliebers-get-tweeting-mad-and-threaten-not-to-watch-supernatural 
That same afternoon, Jared Padelecki-- actor best known for his portrayal of Sam Winchester on Supernatural-- tweeted in reference to the event.Bieber did not publicly react to the tweet. And, it is unknown if he was even aware of this entire event. 
== The Fandoms Clash ==
In response to Padelecki's tweet, angry Beliebers are said to have reacted negatively. It is important to note that most of the surviving primary sources appear to focus on the Supernatural fandom instead of the actions of the Beliebers, which indicates that the Supernatural fandom's reaction might have eclipsed angry Believer comments. Regardless, sources seem to agree that the Beliebers decided boycott Supernatural by not watching it, with potentially the goal of getting it cancelled. https://web.archive.org/web/20200814104600/https://cheezburger.com/95492/beliebers-threaten-supernatural-fans-they-respond-in-the-way-they-do-best https://www.bustle.com/articles/12749-supernatural-stars-harmless-justin-bieber-joke-may-get-his-show-canceled https://www.mustangbuzz.net/ae/2014/02/13/supernatural-vs-beliebers-beliebers-vow-to-boycott-the-popular-cw-series-after-twitter-rant/ As contemporary commentators did indicate, this plan was faulty as many were skeptical about the potential overlap between the two fan communities, let alone enough to create a difference in the ratings. Still, the Supernatural fandom started to respond en masse to the threat.
A tumblr user with the url my-tardis-sense-is-tingling posted a call for all fandoms to band together to fight the boycott by tuning into the next episode of Supernatural (Season 9, Episode 11, "First Born"), which was set to air on January 21, 2014.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3158278/ On the post, OP included a gif from the show with dialogue from the show altered to read "I want the world to know exactly what the Supernatural fans are capable of".https://space-inspector.tumblr.com/post/73675489196/to-fight-the-beliebers-supernatural-boycott-i The gif in question is from the Season 7 episode "Slash Fiction" with the actual dialogue being "I want the world to know exactly what Sam and Dean Winchester are capable of."
The line is delivered by Jared Padelecki in his portrayal of a Leviathan disguised as Sam Winchester. Many fandoms on tumblr rallied around the Supernatural fans, united by a shared dislike of Justin Bieber and his fans.https://web.archive.org/web/20181218145456/https://darthstitch.tumblr.com/post/73554596069/dear-beliebers-upset-about-jareds-tweet Some went as far to frame this as a fight between fandoms and the Beliebers.https://quietlyvisible.tumblr.com/post/74317526749/beliebers-vs-fandoms https://aquailita.tumblr.com/post/73883326905/this-supernatural-vs-beliebers-thing-is-amazing Interestingly, this indicates that the tumblr fans did not view the fandom of a popular musician as being in the same category as their own media fandoms. 
The fandom squabbles continued over the next several days. On January 17, 2014, Padelecki responded to the situation in a media interview, stating, ""Listen, I have a world full of 12-year-olds trying to kill me. So watch my back! We have people watching around for Beliebers."https://www.eonline.com/news/500709/jared-padalecki-on-justin-bieber-s-fans-i-have-a-world-full-of-12-year-olds-trying-to-kill-me
Interestingly, Supernatural had earlier in the season had a character by the name of Corey who was clearly an homage to Justin Bieber in the 10th Episode ("Road Trip").https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3158276/ On January 15th, Jared claimed on Twitter that Corey was meant to mock Bieber before the fan communities started their feud. https://x.com/jarpad/status/423320326634610688 
The Supernatural fandom's efforts in increasing the viewership of their show was evidently so successful that the episode that aired on the 21st had the highest ratings the show had seen since Season 5 was airing in 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20140125001842/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/01/22/supernatural-has-most-watched-episode-since-2010/231177/ https://crownoficeandfire.tumblr.com/post/74226446444/last-nights-supernatural-was-the-series-most Many Supernatural fans took to the internet to rejoice in declaring a decisive victory over the Beliebers. 
On January 22nd, Misha Collins-- another Supernatural actor-- took to Twitter to joke about the situation, sarcastically posting "The Belieber boycott of #supernatural devastated viewership last night. Lesson learned: don't mess with @justinbieber".https://x.com/mishacollins/status/426061383717769216 Padelecki also commented in mockery of the failed boycott, writing "I'm SO sad to turn off the Beliebers.... However, at a maximum justifiable age of 7, they should be in bed right now. #Supernatural".https://x.com/jarpad/status/425858578600443904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E425858578600443904%7Ctwgr%5Ef6ff4106e306f58802225f881502e48a1c1b1c13%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2F1vufa6%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dfalse https://www.reddit.com/r/Supernatural/comments/1vufa6/jared_taking_another_jab_at_the_beliebers/
In 2019, some five years after the feud, Jared was quoted as saying that he would like to fight Justin Bieber in a UFC match.https://www.mysanantonio.com/z-archived-entertainment/celebrities/article/San-Antonio-s-Supernatural-star-Jared-Padalecki-13968362.php
== Commentary ==
=== Contemporary ===
==== Pro-Supernatural ====
==== Pro-Justin Bieber ====
==== Critical of the Feud ====
==== In Retrospect ====
== See Also ==
* "Beliebers VS Supernatural: How Television Ratings Work" by Joey Pedras (YouTube video; 21 January 2014)
== References ==
Category:2014 Events
Category:Supernatural Fandom Occurrences