It is not often that one gets to blog about a television show that in only thirteen episodes has already managed to feature such scandalous plot lines as a pregnancy scare, an attempted date-rape, a lost virginity, a near-deadly accident, a divorce, a suicide attempt, multiple thefts, blackmail, a drug addiction, a threesome, and an eating disorder for a business school class. However, Gossip Girl, creator Josh Schwartz’s (of The O.C. fame) latest incarnation of the teen drama, is not an ordinary program. Modestly successful in its Monday at 9pm time slot (it averages 2.5 million viewers weekly), the show has gained tremendous momentum online. Though Lost and The Office have become download sensations as well, what sets Gossip Girl a part from these other serial programs is that it appears to be succeeding primarily on the Internet.
But given that the show’s title character is an anonymous blogger and that the majority of communication occurs via text-message, the spread of its online existence should come as no surprise. According to the nymag.com article, “The Genius of Gossip Girl”:
There’s something about the combination of the show’s premise, the viewers’ age, and the available technology that has given Gossip Girl a life of its own online. Not only do fans watch the show on their computers, but they post sightings of the actors on gossip blogs and exchange rumors (about both the show and its stars) on fan sites. You can even play Gossip Girl’s Upper East Side on Second Life. It’s not appointment television; it’s a 24-hour conversation. We are all Gossip Girl! And the whole experience can happen sans television.
The challenge of this sort of success is monetizing it. Traditionally, shows that permeate the cultural zeitgeist—Friends, Seinfeld etc.—are ratings Goliaths, or they exist on cable television (Sex and the City) which is not as reliant on ad revenue. Gossip Girl, which lives on the CW, does not fit either model: it has become a pop culture phenomenon on a major network, but this has only translated into modest television ratings, which could lead to its demise. Up to this point, the strategy for solving the advertising conundrum had been mostly product placement (i.e. characters talk on Verizon cell phones); however, this sort of creative marketing cannot replace the revenue generated by traditional broadcast ads. Other options do exist: the CW could look into a Pando-type of content delivery system in order to minimize cost and maximize revenue. But instead of taking a more creative approach, network executives, as Kumasi blogged about in "'Gossip Girl' Goes Offline," have announced that is pulling Web-streaming for the season’s final five episodes, which begin airing tonight.
This desperate move to increase viewership seems like a temporary fix that will undoubtedly annoy GG’s legion of fanatical tween, teen (and yes adult) viewers who have come to appreciate and expect the show’s multi platform availability. Though it may generate a ratings bump, it does little to actually solve what is at the heart of the problem: that GG’s brand of success is not an anomaly but rather indicative of future viewing trends as young, tech-savvy audiences continue to grow. Discovering new, sustainable and effective advertising streams for shows that exist into two worlds—on television and online—could forever change the broadcast model. Schwartz and co–executive producer Stephanie Savage believe that part of the answer is redefining “successful” programming by devaluing the traditional Nielsen’s rating system and, instead, judging a show by its “cultural permeation.” According to the article, “It’s not a new goal—as Us Weekly editor Janice Min puts it, ‘The best thing that could happen to a show is for someone to be able to say ‘Jen and Courteney’ and you know they are talking about the stars of Friends’—but it is an entirely new way of getting there.”
Gossip Girl is in a unique position to make inroads into multi platorm marketing and should not shy away from the challenge that this poses. Though the question of whether the network will give producers the breathing room needed to navigate this brave new world of program-delivery remains, ultimately whatever becomes of show, its model of multi platform distribution will have far-reaching implications on how television shows are marketed and disseminated online.
Link to article: http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/46225/
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