Fox Interviews Village Administrator Giaccio on Sleepy Hollow's National Hit

Of course many may argue that we already were on the national map, but certainly this Fox show and its millions of watchers in the first week will help our village infamy reach new heights.

A Fox syndicate came knocking to interview Village Administrator Anthony Giaccio on our star village. 

While film crews are down in North Carolina working crazy hours putting together this show, a news crew from Piedmont’s Fox channel came north to find the real inspiration for the show. 

“Publicity is nothing new for us,” Giaccio said in an interview staged in front of Washington Irving’s grave and the headless horseman bridge largely figuring in our local legend. This show however is “one of the biggest things that’s happened to us,” and he said he hopes it adds more tourism numbers to our usual season.

“It’s all good,” Giaccio told Patch.

While villagers themselves seem to be giving the show mixed reviews, in an age of critical cynicism, national media has been weirdly been almost giddy with their praise.

Already experts are calling this show a big win for the Fox network, killing the competition and “scaring up huge ratings,” said an article in Adweek.

“According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, Sleepy made short work of the competition, bowing to an impressive 10.1 million viewers and a 3.5 in the adults 18-49 demo. The one-hour premiere now stands as Fox’s highest-rated fall opener in seven seasons.”

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery's Jim Logan, who manages the VisitSleepyHollow.com site, said the site's seen a huge uptick in traffic since the Monday debut of the show, hitting 5,000 visitors daily -- a figure he said he only reached at the height of last year's season. 

Giaccio said haunted hayrides tickets went on sale on Tuesday, the day after the first show aired, and immediately they were off to a great start. Ticket buyers hail from Texas, Delaware and beyond.

Others enjoying a little local boost in their fame is our own, and only, female cop, Officer Wendy Yancey. We’ll be showcasing the Real Cop of Sleepy Hollow next week; stay tuned.

And tune in weekly: the show airs Monday night at 9 p.m. on Fox. Anyone want to blog a weekly review? Start one here.