This is, of course, among other things, all ironical as the show is named after an eponymous blogger - Gossip Girl.
I mean to stick some stuff in here about life imitating art or some such crap, but you get the idea.The drama, a sort of cross between 'The O.C.' and 'Mean Girls' although really if you want to go back a lot further it is a carbon copy of Whit Stillman's 1990 film 'Metropolitan', which was about these preppy partying kids…I digress, the show has been a massive hit online. Even ITV is getting its act together on this one and showing it on the web and last week signed Perez Hilton to write a column on its 'Gossip Girl' page where you can watch it online and preview forthcoming episodes.
But the show like everything else has been hit by the writers strike and has a long hiatus and so as it returns CW wants to ensure that the numbers are high and will not show it online until at least a week after it has aired on TV.It's reverse hype or at least executives at CW, and the two parents of this young network CBS and Warner Brothers, are hoping so. They want the kids who have been downloading it on iTunes where it is hugely popular to sit in front of those old fashioned 40 inch flats screens and pay attention. It's kind of odd, and has the feel of King Canute about it, as mostly we read about hyping things on the web, but the fear is that if no one watches the show on TV then the numbers will go through the floor and no numbers means no show period, no matter how many people are watching it on their laptop.It is an important battle as the show pulls in a highly attractive youth audience. If this move fails and no one tunes in then this will be a short run for the second series of 'Gossip Girl', which will be a huge blow for network television as it will confirm it is struggling very hard to pull that youth audience away from the web.
It is important in other ways for the CW network as it tries to establish itself as America's fifth broadcast network after the big four. Its only a couple of years old essential after CBS and Warner merged their UPN and WB networks in 2006.
It could in all seriousness be a tipping point as the battle to retain the digital generation is lost.Variety reports that for now, the decision to stop streaming new segments of 'Gossip Girl' applies only to the five episodes slated to air beginning Monday."This is an experiment," said Paul McGuire, exec VP of network communications for the C-Dub. "We need to grow the ratings for the show and we want to see if this helps move the needle."While CW's plans might frustrate the average screenager or twentysomething viewer the more geeky out there will be on BitTorrent sharing their favourite shows with their friends.
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Gordon Macmillan
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