RESULTS: Who Should Sookie Be With?

Last week we opened a survey asking fans who they think Sookie should be with on True Blood (as opposed to in the books). We also asked fans if they’d read the books and if so, how far into the series. We wondered just how much the novels were influencing opinions about the TV series in this regard. After a week of collecting responses, here are the results.

1. Have you read any of the Sookie Stackhouse novels?

Of the 2,842 people who responded to the survey, 72.8% have read at least one of the novels while 27.2% haven’t read any. Pretty much what we expected based on anecdotal evidence like comments posted here and in the forum.

2. How far have you read in the series?

If respondents answered “Yes” to question 1, they were taken on to this question and asked to indicate how many of the novels they’ve read. This is important in the context of our main question because certain relationships develop at different times in the books. Of the 2,054 people who answered this question, 76.4% have read all 10 novels. Another 14.8% have read beyond book 3 but aren’t to book 10 yet. A handful of respondents, 8.8%, have read 3 or fewer of the novels.

3. Who do you think Sookie should be with on True Blood (not in the books)?

The big question, the one that seems to divide the fandom, had an overwhelming winner. Of the 2,771 people who answered this question, 68.1% chose Eric for Sookie. Coming in a distant second with 14.5% was Bill. Third went to Alcide (9.7%), followed by Sam (2.6%), Quinn (1.6%), All of the above (1.2%), Someone we haven’t met yet (1%), None of the above (.8%) and Pam (.6%).

Conclusions

So it would appear that fans in general want Eric and Sookie together on the TV series. But how does having read the novels impact those choices? Let’s filter and look at that data:

The fans have voted...

The results from those who have read the novels reveal that 70.4% chose Eric for Sookie while 11.5% chose Bill. Breaking it down further, of those readers who are caught up through book 10, 72.8% chose Eric and 9.9% chose Bill. However, while those who haven’t read beyond book 3 (on which True Blood season 3 is loosely based) are more inclined to choose Bill (23.3%), the majority (57.4%) still chose Eric.

Of those who have NOT read any of the novels, 61.7% chose Eric for Sookie, but 22.4% chose Bill. In other words, those who are watching True Blood without knowledge of the storyline from the books still prefer Eric for Sookie in the end, but rank Eric and Bill pretty closely to those who have read at least the first couple of novels.

What can we glean from all of this? It would appear that while Bill has a very vocal group of supporters, arguments that Team Eric is made up solely of book fans is inaccurate since he carried the day among all respondents, no matter how many or how few of the novels they’d read. Also, poor Sam and Alcide are left out in the cold, at least for now.

Updated: Check out this awesome graph of the results, made by True Blood fan Silvia.

Depending on what happens with the True Blood season finale, it might be worth running this survey again to see if perceptions have changed. What do you think? Comments are open, but please adhere to our Comment Policy and keep it civil!