Rotten Tomatoes Expands Its "Tomatometer-Approved" Critics to Include More Writers and Platforms

Rotten Tomatoes, the internet's most influential review aggregator, has updated its critics policy, broadening the scope of whose views can be counted toward its make-or-break Tomatometer score. The Tomatometer score is the percentage of the reviews that have been positive, supposedly reflecting the "collective opinion" of critics, but critics have so far been limited to those who write for established publications, a group that, according to numerous studies, is heavily slanted toward critics who are white and male. Reviews from established publications will still be included automatically, regardless of who wrote them, but the new rules allow for the inclusion of individual critics, regardless of where they publish. The difference between reviews from respected publications and respected critics will be more or less tomato, tomahto. Individual critics will need to apply to be "Tomatometer-approved" and will have to meet set criteria: namely that they have written consistently for at least two years about film or TV at a non-self-published site.