Shonda Rhimes At the same time, part of the creation of how we tell the story on “Scandal” is that we want it to feel like if you’re not watching it live, you’re missing a whole other experience. That’s why everybody got on Twitter, so that you’re part of this communal experience of watching the show and live-tweeting the show and all that goes on with it. But the binge-watching helps, because people who weren’t watching at the beginning are getting caught up, so that they can join in that experience.

That’s an interesting divide. A lot of people feel that they have to watch certain shows on the night they were on, so they can be part of the water cooler conversation the next day. But with something like “House of Cards,” whose episodes are released all at once, when is the water cooler moment?

Beau Willimon I haven’t seen a water cooler since I was a kid. The water cooler moment, what is that really? At its core, it’s people having a reason to have a conversation about a shared experience, but there’s a lot of ways to have a shared experience. That can be live-tweeting. That can be people that have binge-watched a season of something and told their friend, “You have to binge-watch it, so we can talk about it.” Then they have a conversation two weeks later that’s about an entire season. I just think the water cooler is expanding in concentric circles to allow for more experiences.

Winter It always blows my mind when you think of the water cooler moments of our childhood, where everybody knows the same reference, say, in “All in the Family” or “I Love Lucy” and “The Honeymooners.” Literally, you can count on every adult of that era understanding what, “Pow, right in the kisser,” means. Now, because of the niche quality viewing, you’ve got, at least on cable shows, a much smaller amount of people who don’t have that. It’s going to be interesting to see 40 years from now if there’s going to be little groups of people who know references to certain shows; whereas before, everyone knew the same songs, the same jokes, the same routines.

How do you approach social media with your shows? Do you feel more promotional pressure to have that “can you believe it?” moment in an episode to get everyone talking about it that week, to help cut through the clutter?

Cuse I do “Bates Motel.” It’s produced for Universal Television for A&E. And A&E wants people to show up and watch that show live. [With] social media, you can create enough of a sense that you have to be there to watch it, which is something that Shonda has done well. I resorted to live-tweeting “Bates Motel” with my mother to get viewers to show up live. I have no shame.