I'm glad we're still flying a bit under the radar here. Because if the CW unleashed its babe-o-licious press relations team on me, I worry I too might somehow fall prey to it.
I threw up in my mouth a little bit when New York Magazine made Gossip Girl its cover story with the title Best Show Ever and then I threw up a little more when Sonia Zjawinski wrote a Wired blog post with the headline of Gossip Girl's Online Success is a Preview of TV 3.0.
Not that Wired hasn't always drunk the Internet Kool-Aide a little too much for its own good, but what's most annoying to me about both articles is they play up the iTunes and the hundreds of thousands of streams from the CW's site before it cancelled Internet streaming of Gossip Girl via its web site for the remainder of the season.
Take the hundreds of thousands of streams. Take the iTunes. Call it ONE MILLION altogether even. It's not one million by the way, it's significantly less because if it was actually anywhere near a million the babe-o-licious CW Network press relations team would have every body talking about NEARLY A MILLION instead of hundreds of thousands. But for the sake of discussion, let's call it a million...even though Gossip Girl is currently only #7 on iTunes according to the Wired article.
But, let's call it a million anyway and you know what you have? A show that still has less viewers in total than the Gilmore Girls had just last year in its final season. Even when you add in the imaginary million extra Internet viewers. And I'm sure Gimore Girls got some love on the Internet too. Gilmore Girls averaged 3.7 million viewers last year. That was significantly down from its hey day on The WB in 2001-2002 of 5.2 million viewers.
Babe-o-licious press relations crew or no all past performance indicates that Internet buzz (and even a cover on New York Magazine) doesn't translate into viewers.
It's often said that past performance isn't always an indicator of future success, but it usually is, and I'm betting Gossip Girl is no exception. The problem for Gossip Girl is pretty simple: its target audience (women 12-34) would rather watch MTV's The Hills.
Just letting you know it’s at #1 right now. Most people I know (being the target demo that we are) watch both Gossip Girl and The Hills, neither one live. But it is GG that everyone discusses and argues about- even in my Contemporary Civilization class. How is Nate and Chuck’s “friendship” a commentary on the need to legalize gay marriage in America?
Basically, tv producers need to find a way to cash in on the cultural phenomenon that GG has become- because it really is one. We want to buy those clothes, we text and blog about it constantly, we download it off illegal websites because it takes way too freaking long to come on iTunes and the CW streaming site sucks. Trust me, people don’t talk or care about The Hills nearly this much.
Just letting you know it's at #1 right now. Most people I know (being the target demo that we are) watch both Gossip Girl and The Hills, neither one live. But it is GG that everyone discusses and argues about- even in my Contemporary Civilization class. How is Nate and Chuck's “friendship” a commentary on the need to legalize gay marriage in America?
Basically, tv producers need to find a way to cash in on the cultural phenomenon that GG has become- because it really is one. We want to buy those clothes, we text and blog about it constantly, we download it off illegal websites because it takes way too freaking long to come on iTunes and the CW streaming site sucks. Trust me, people don't talk or care about The Hills nearly this much.
Gilmore Girls was not streamed over the internet last year.
Gilmore Girls was not streamed over the internet last year.
Oh it was streamed — just not by the CW.
And soholove, thank you for the feedback. I’m still soaking it all in.
Oh it was streamed — just not by the CW.
And soholove, thank you for the feedback. I'm still soaking it all in.
OMG, I just cannot believe it. Nobody is buying the Gossip Girl hype that The CW is just throwing in our faces with fuc**** shovels. The show is not performing good because the show is not good. Simple equation.
Oh, and about the ‘Best. Show. Ever.’ quote on the cover story of NY magazine… Do these people watch or have ever watched a little thing called TV?
OMG, I just cannot believe it. Nobody is buying the Gossip Girl hype that The CW is just throwing in our faces with fuc**** shovels. The show is not performing good because the show is not good. Simple equation.
Oh, and about the 'Best. Show. Ever.' quote on the cover story of NY magazine… Do these people watch or have ever watched a little thing called TV?
Thank you so much for calling CW on their crap. Gossip Girls is not a hit no matter how you spin it. From reading around the internet, you are right they share a viewership with The Hill, the dumbest of the 12-34 females. They both cater to the lowest common denominator of the demographic, and The Hill there has the advantage, it’s even worse, and dumber than Gossip Girls.
Thank you so much for calling CW on their crap. Gossip Girls is not a hit no matter how you spin it. From reading around the internet, you are right they share a viewership with The Hill, the dumbest of the 12-34 females. They both cater to the lowest common denominator of the demographic, and The Hill there has the advantage, it's even worse, and dumber than Gossip Girls.
I just have to say how much I enjoy these articles. This is one example of you writing what I think.
I just have to say how much I enjoy these articles. This is one example of you writing what I think.
Robert- I thought the NY Mag cover was supposed to be funny. Like ‘OMG this show is like totally the best show ever!’ playing off the ditzy valley girl vibe the show has. But I may be wrong in which case I would have to assume that no one at NY Mag has watched a television show. Ever.
Also– side note– I’m in CW’s target market and I never missed an episode of Gilmore Girls. Gossip Girls however is a mean spirited superficial crapfest which I gave a chance an now refuse to watch. I can’t believe the CW cancelled many shows with positive images of girls for this gaggle of ‘mean girl’ bubbleheads.
Robert- I thought the NY Mag cover was supposed to be funny. Like 'OMG this show is like totally the best show ever!' playing off the ditzy valley girl vibe the show has. But I may be wrong in which case I would have to assume that no one at NY Mag has watched a television show. Ever.
Also– side note– I'm in CW's target market and I never missed an episode of Gilmore Girls. Gossip Girls however is a mean spirited superficial crapfest which I gave a chance an now refuse to watch. I can't believe the CW cancelled many shows with positive images of girls for this gaggle of 'mean girl' bubbleheads.
Gossip Girl best show ever? It may be one of the most hyped shows ever, but thats about it. No wonder CW is going down the tubes.
The BEST WEEK EVER is better than Gossip Girl, at least that clip show is somewhat entertaining. Id rather eat my own eyes than watch GG.
Gossip Girl best show ever? It may be one of the most hyped shows ever, but thats about it. No wonder CW is going down the tubes.
The BEST WEEK EVER is better than Gossip Girl, at least that clip show is somewhat entertaining. Id rather eat my own eyes than watch GG.
Mandi, I nominate “Gossip Girls however is a mean spirited superficial crapfest” as the best pull quote of the week!
Mandi, I nominate “Gossip Girls however is a mean spirited superficial crapfest” as the best pull quote of the week!
I could write a book about the new do-me feminist media-journakist complex ( with apologies to Camille Paglia) and sort of am. All I will say here is my latest ( gift subscription) New Yorker has a feature article about the Gossip Girl book series. How many of us knew the TV series was based on some childrens’ books which are popular in NYC? The critic pans the TV show, of course, as a blandification or dilution of the books, again, of course, much darker. Maybe this helps explain the media hype for Gossip Girl – like Candace Bushnell, the author has good friends in high places, and the hype is as much about a successful book series, ala Bushnell and JK Rowling, as it is about a TV show on a negligible network.
I could write a book about the new do-me feminist media-journakist complex ( with apologies to Camille Paglia) and sort of am. All I will say here is my latest ( gift subscription) New Yorker has a feature article about the Gossip Girl book series. How many of us knew the TV series was based on some childrens' books which are popular in NYC? The critic pans the TV show, of course, as a blandification or dilution of the books, again, of course, much darker. Maybe this helps explain the media hype for Gossip Girl – like Candace Bushnell, the author has good friends in high places, and the hype is as much about a successful book series, ala Bushnell and JK Rowling, as it is about a TV show on a negligible network.