If you're like me, you probably get annoyed when you roll down your window and your beard blows up in your eyes... And if you don't have a ridiculous beard, but are still like me in your appreciation for a good teen drama, this might be relevant to your television scheduling.
It seems the overlords over at the CW have hatched a new plan. The last five episodes of Gossip Girl, set to begin on Monday, will not be available for online streaming. I know. OMG! Right? I'll pause while you text your BFF. Over at the New York Times, Paul McGuire, senior VP of communications for the network, is quoted as saying, "This is an experiment to see if this moves the [Nielsen ratings] needle at all."
The rub seems to be that while they do show ads during streaming content, those streamed episodes are not counted in the pesky Nielsen ratings. Isn't it about time they are? Fortunately, if you just don't have room in your Monday night to fit the GG kids in, and you have that extra $10 from Granny's last birthday card, those five episodes will be available on iTunes. Here's hoping it's not the start of a disturbing new trend.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-18-2008 @ 11:49AM
GL said...
It seems more like an experiment to see if people will buy them on iTunes.
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4-18-2008 @ 12:29PM
lucyfan62 said...
Hmmm, wasn't streaming content one of the issues in the writers' strike (and was lampooned pretty well on this week's South Park as Canada went on strike and demanded some of that internet money)? Well, no streaming video, no residual pay to the writers! Problem solved, right! Gossip Girl has already been picked up for next season, so as long as it retains the ratings it had before the strike, it's certainly not in danger of cancellation (unless, of course, the strike completely derailed any momentum it had which worries me about shows like Pushing Daisies and Chuck, that won't see new episodes until fall).
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4-18-2008 @ 12:38PM
JW said...
Well the last time I checked, CW didn't have Smallville episodes online either; why should they have Gossip Girl episodes online?
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4-18-2008 @ 12:42PM
Scott said...
Wow, I thought you had to work for NBC to make decisions this bad! Take the show that's getting the most word-of-mouth from the teenage generation they most want to reach, and stop offering it on the medium those people use the most. Brilliant!
And I don't even watch the show. But this is really so moronic, it sounds like an NBC business decision.
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4-18-2008 @ 2:13PM
Jennifer said...
Yeah, this is just idiotic. Not everyone even HAS a Nielsen box, and that's the only way THEY can register that they watch it.
And I thought it was bad enough that Supernatural episodes were posted a week after airing on CWtv.com. Oy. I hope this idea doesn't catch on with all the other sheep.
4-20-2008 @ 9:31AM
telebatdotcom said...
Here is a poll - Apple Tv vs all its competitors - XBox, Vudu, Tivo and others. It would be interesting to see which product people prefer:
http://www.appleteevee.blogspot.com/
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