Rotten Tomatoes expands memberships, changes critic eligibility requirements

By Sam Barsanti | August 28, 2018 | 9:11pm

Aux Features Film

The proverbial produce aisles of review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes are about to get a little more well-stocked, as the site has expanded the eligibility requirements for being a Tomatometer-eligible critic. In other words, that means more people’s reviews will now count toward the “Rotten” or “Fresh” rating on the site, so from now on you won’t only be hearing from the same stuffy, old newspaper writers or stuffy, young website writers. The plan is for this change to open the door for a larger and more diverse group of critics from newer and more diverse outlets, theoretically keeping the all-important Tomatometer system from falling behind the times.

According to a press release, the new kinds of outlets include podcasts and “digital video series,” which probably means something like YouTube channels. Now, “a strong social media presence and audience engagement” will be taken into consideration for prospective Tomatometer-approved critics, allowing the site to recognize “individual qualifications and body of work” instead of simply the publication a critic writes for. Based on this new criteria, “over 200” critics have already been added to Rotten Tomatoes, and you can apply to become one of them—assuming your podcast has enough fans or whatever—at this link.