CATEGORIES
RESOURCES
CONTRIBUTORS
The CW. WTF?
The series Gossip Girl was returning to the CW network, and was under some pressure to deliver ratings numbers higher than the previous season’s. After realizing that hundreds of thousands of people were watching the show online (gasp!), they figured that last season’s gradual decrease in viewership from (2.5 million viewers to 1.8 million viewers) may have fallen victim to the nasty, horrible, clutches of the internet.
Seriously.
So the CW, to avoid the wrath of technology, decided to pull the series from the web entirely. No Gossip Girl for you. That’ll teach the internet. Now you ‘internet-people’ are going to have to watch it on the television.
The premiere of the series scored 2.44 million viewers. It got 2.5 million last year. CW’s spinning this as a victory somehow, by saying that ratings for the series were 8% higher than the series it replaced.
Seriously.
Haven’t we learned anything, class?
The availability of your content on the internet is not why your content’s TV ratings have slipped. On the contrary, it’s probably why ratings didn’t slip more than they did. I find it painfully ironic that a show with the word ‘gossip’ in its title is ignoring — nay, shunning — the medium that could facilitate and channel the most buzz about it.
This show started out poorly. Even at its peak in its first season, it lost about half of the audience from its lead-in, America’s Next Top Model. And to make matter worse, Gossip Girl premiered after the ANTM’s season finale. It started off week, and didn’t get much better.
Gossip Girl’s 2007 Lead-In Audience Lost from America’s Next Top Model.
| Date | Lead-In Audience Lost |
|---|---|
| 9/26 | -49% |
| 10/3 | -40% |
| 10/10 | -48% |
| 10/17 | -51% |
| 10/24 | -45% |
Here’s what the blogosphere’s looked like over the last few months:
See that spike after April 15th? That’s outrage and wonderment about why the CW was pulling this series from the web.
One thing I’ve learned is that in this world of many, many options, audiences will not tolerate inconvenience, and are more likely to punish those that prevent an enjoyable experience.
Case in point, check out what the #5 most searched-upon content is on isoHunt, a Bittorrent search engine:
Not exactly what the CW had in mind, methinks.
I’ve seen firsthand how a good content distribution strategy work wonders online — not only in terms of generating buzz, but generating ratings, not to mention ad revenue.
Hopefully, the continued ratings slide is enough to encourage other networks to keep making their content available, however and whenever people want to consume it. Even if it continues to be ad-supported, as long as it’s easy to get, it’s good enough.
Posted in 
Great post. You would think that a small network like the CW would try and leverage all forms of distribution. Especially since this show hits that demo so perfectly. What’s odd is that we are 2 - 30 something males talking about Gossip Girl ; )
I think I may have written this in response to your original post on this, but it still stands: Customer Service 101 says is you’re giving out a perk you can’t take it away without seriously pissing people off.
That’s as true for the local bank that stops giving out free coffee to people as they wait on line as it is for the airlines that want to charge us for more than 1 piece of luggage as it is for a TV network that tells its digitally savvy viewer base they can’t download the show anymore.
In all cases it comes off as unduly punitive and unnecessary.
while it may be painfully inconvenient to a some viewers, my girlfriend had no issues TiVo-ing the program. And I still enjoy the text minders, which nicely synch up with one of the show’s key plot drivers…the cell phone…and i think the come-back episode put in enough plot hooks to keep the believers glued into a ratings ball they can sell from. I mean, I even bought the song they used at the end of the episode, Sour Cherry by the Kills.
Hopefully CW has stronger tolerance of low-rating high-engagement shows than Fox and will allow GG to find its legs.
couldn’t agree more with the post and comments. Either way, I’m still waiting to see news of the backlash. I too believe it must be happening, but are there any articles out there to-date that proves that tween girls and Mr. Risis are jumping ship for The Real OC Season 16?