The Web May Revive a CW TV Show & Give it Legs






I have to admit, I had never even heard of "TBL" (The Beautiful Life) until I saw Ashton Kutcher's tweet about it on Twitter.  I'm part of that crowd who's eyeballs have mostly turned from TV to the web.  So now I've gone to Ashton's YouTube channel to start checking out the episodes.  So far (I've only begun to watch episode 1) it seems like something decent to watch.  And with no commercials, gotta love that.  I think it's cool that Ashton is experimenting with this whole "exclusive for the web" stuff.  It may just work.  Heck, it got me to start watching it.  :-)

"The Beautiful Life: TBL (also known as The Beautiful Life) is an American television drama series, which ran on The CW from September 16, 2009 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Corbin BleuMischa BartonElle Macpherson and Sara Paxton. It revolved around a group of male and female modelssharing a residence in New York City.[1] Mike Kelley (Swingtown) served as the showrunner for the series, based on the script by former model-turned-writer Adam Giaudrone, and Ashton Kutcher was the executive producer.[2] The CW ordered 13 episodes for the first season."
"On September 25, 2009, The Beautiful Life: TBL was cancelled after two episodes due to low ratings.[3] Six full episodes were produced, while the cancellation came during the filming of the seventh episode.[4] On November 17, 2009, The New York Daily News reported that the CW planned to air the remaining episodes during the summer months. However, a CW spokesperson stated that "the status of unaired episodes has yet to be determined.[5]"
"The first two and remaining episodes are now airing on YouTube, Kutcher spoke on the development "What we feel like we're doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first.... A show that couldn't find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web."[6] The five episodes being aired online are sponsored by HP.[7]"
"On December 17, 2009, executive producer Ashton Kutcher reported on The Beautiful Life's official Youtube channel that because of the cancellation, the remaining episodes will be released online. If the episodes gain more hits online, more new episodes may be produced exclusively for the Web. The first three episodes were released online, with the last two premiering Monday, December 21, 2009.[18] Thanks to a sponsorship deal with Hewlett Packard, the five first episodes are available. Kutcher is hoping that the high production quality of the show will increase its audience size on YouTube, which will in turn lure sponsors to finance more episodes.[19] The official YouTube channel also includes a number of short videos featuring the main cast members talking about the "beautiful changes" they have planned for 2010, plus a number of other videos connected with the show."

Ref: Wikipedia.org

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