By Andrew Wallenstein 2 hours, 21 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -
The CW network is taking
aim at an unlikely competitive threat: its own Web site.
The network said Thursday that episodes of its series
"Gossip Girl" will not be streamed on CWTV when "Gossip"
returns Monday with original episodes through season's end. The
first 12 episodes of the season, which will remain on the site,
were made available free to viewers about a week after their
original airdate.
The CW is trying to avoid being a victim of its own
success: "Gossip" has proved to be a big draw online
(http://www.CWTV), with each episode said to be generating
hundreds of thousands of streams. Episodes routinely rank among
the most downloaded on iTunes, which also will continue to
offer new episodes.
CW is taking the counterintuitive step of limiting "Gossip"
to test whether its online window is cannibalizing the TV
audience.
"While the buzz on the show has remained strong, we decided
to have it be that you can only get it on our airwaves," said a
CW spokesman, who deemed the withdrawal an "experimental" move.
"We'll see if that at all impacts the numbers."
Yanking "Gossip" online is a stark departure from what most
TV programmers are doing this season. Full episodes have been
made ubiquitous online and seeded with advertising; executives
tout them as purely additive measures toward maximizing their
audience back on air.
But in targeting the younger demographics that tend to
consume more programming on the Web than older viewers, the CW
might be more vulnerable online than other TV networks with
broader, older-skewing audience bases. If teens are being
conditioned to catch "Gossip" online at their leisure, that
could lessen the lure of appointment viewing in primetime.
The CW will do what ever it takes to protect its freshman
series. Monday's episode will be its first original installment
in three months because of the WGA strike and its first in a
new slot since moving from Wednesdays at 9 p.m. to Mondays at 8
p.m.
Ironically, the CW cited the success of "Gossip" as one of
the reasons the series received a full-season pickup in
October.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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