WebProNews » Quarterlife

Quarterlife Ratings Disappoint

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:01:44 +0000

The fate of the first Internet-series turned network prime-time pickup is uncertain after its TV debut failed to gather a crowd. The Web show “quarterlife” was dropped into NBC’s 10 PM slot last night and pulled in just 3.86 million viewers, which is fewer than even “Cavemen” brought in.

It was too late to be going up against “American Idol,” so it must have been another powerhouse viewer-magnet that the audience just had to see. First place for the Tuesday 10 PM slot: “Primetime: What Would You Do Now?”

Hmmm. Well, I can’t account for TV viewers myself – 11million people opted for an NCIS rerun in the 8 PM slot. “Primetime” pulled in twice as many viewers as “quarterlife.”

Maybe the hipster-geek-web-crowd was torn about what to watch. While it may have been very cool that a Web-show got picked up for prime time, it was up against “Jericho,” which was forced back on the air by a rabid, peanut-chucking campaign by the same set of hipsters. The good news is that “Jericho” picked up another million viewers, trailing “Primetime” by just 700,000 with 6.9 million.

I mean, really, it might as well have been up against “Robot Chicken.” Maybe that hipster-geek-web-crowd won’t be so torn when “quarterlife” is moved to its intended Sunday night 9 PM time slot when it faces…

“Family Guy.”

Oh. I guess a time slot against any of the incarnations of “Star Trek” was unavailable, huh? If you’re a “quarterlife” fan, keep your fingers crossed that it ends up shown on Saturday afternoons.

The TV Trend on the Web

James Cherkoff — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:38:35 +0000

The increasing quality of programming on the web is one of the most striking trends of 2007.

Or in other words Lonely Girl ain’t lonely anymore – she’s got plenty of competition. In the US MySpace has its own TV channel and are busy commissioning original programming like Room Mates.

In fact, another MySpace show QuarterLife has become the first webisode to be picked up by a major network in the shape of NBC. (Ironically, this last move appears to be one result of the writers’ strike in Hollywood).

Meanwhile, Mania TV and No Good TV are busy building million-strong audiences around programmes such as The Daily Indie and Will Ferrell has launched his own web comedy channel called Funny Or Die.

While the very cheap and very good Break-A-Leg on Blip.tv has been viewed one million times. But it’s not just the US. In the UK, Bebo launched the latest part of the LG15 universe in the shape of Kate Modern which has served up 25 million videos in three months and Tory-talking shop 18 Doughty Street continues to build an audience.

Why the boom?

Aside from everyone having broadband access, and gazillions piling into the social networking space, the cost of web programming is dramatically lower than traditional TV shows. I met Miles ‘LG15′ Beckett in the summer and was struck by the low-fi nature of the Kate Modern production which is being shot in a flat at the bottom of Brick Lane and around the streets of London using handheld camcorders. NewTeeVee estimates that web programming costs around $1,000 per minute which may sound a lot until its compared to OldTeeVee drama which comes in at about $65,000 per minute.

These new professional web studios are part of the Great TV Morph and they looks set to grow fast as Ad Bucks continue to drift. But like so many other parts of the social web only the shows where the viewer is driving are likely to succeed.

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Quarterlife Goes from Web to TV

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:00:04 +0000

There were rumours even before the U.S. writers strike started that it might lead to one of the networks picking up Quarterlife, the new Web drama about twentysomethings created by Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, the team behind Thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, and now it appears that those rumours have come true.

NBC, which like other networks is looking down the barrel of an empty TV season, said that it has picked up the show and will run it starting in January.

The show becomes the first to move wholesale from Web to TV, but I predict (as others have) that if the strike continues, Quarterlife will not be the last to make that jump.

The major networks have a voracious need for content, and when the chips are down they really couldn’t care less where that content comes from, so long as it fills the airwaves. During the last strike it was reality TV shows like Cops and America’s Most Wanted that filled the void for the networks — this time around it’s the Web.

As I noted in this post about the writers’ strike, it’s more than a little ironic that while the Web is the hot-button issue in the strike — in terms of the revenue share that writers want for online content — it’s also the place that writers are going to get their message out, and it has also now become the source of content that is replacing their traditional TV work. As my friend Tony Hung notes, these are interesting times.

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MySpaceTV Launches New Drama Series

Mike Sachoff — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:45:37 +0000

MySpace said today that it will introduce "quarterlife", a new online series from Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, creators of "My So-Called Life", on MySpaceTV on November 11, 2007.

"This is the most exciting project I’ve worked on in a very long time, and part of that is the level of creative autonomy we can have on the Internet. For better or worse, ‘quarterlife’ is truly our own vision," said Marshall Herskovitz.

The "quarterlife" series is a drama that focuses on six people in their twenties. The central character is a young woman who reveals her personal secrets as well as her friends on her video blog.

MySpaceTV will create a "quarterlife" video channel and a MySpace profile page to feature exclusive series content including character profiles, behind-the- scenes video footage and storyline secrets. The series will have 36 episodes that are 8 minutes in length.

"When Emmy award-winning producers come to MySpaceTV – you know this is reaching a whole new level," said Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace. "We’re proud to offer the creative community a blank canvas and open platform to express their vision."

MySpace has had success with other Internet based shows including Lonelygirl15 and Prom Queen, which was created by former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s company.