By Andrew Wallenstein
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -
Leave it to a program
about twentysomethings adrift to bounce around the media
ecosystem like a shiftless slacker. And so it was for
"quarterlife," which stumbled from the Internet to broadcast TV
to cable in the course of a week.
It probably wasn't quite the arc envisioned by the series'
creator, Marshall Herskovitz. The former "thirtysomething"
executive producer has been hailed as a visionary for
attempting to make a go of original programming on the
Internet; getting NBC to sign on for a second window was just
the cherry on top.
But the horrific ratings performance of "quarterlife" on
NBC last week, compounded by ill-advised public remarks
Herskovitz made expressing his regrets, stained what could have
been a success story to remember. To add insult to injury,
"quarterlife" has since been consigned to NBC's sister cable
channel Bravo, which Herskovitz has deemed a better fit.
But the irony of the failure of "quarterlife" to make the
transition from the Internet to broadcast is that it never
should have been on the Internet or broadcast. This was and
always has been a cable series.
The ugly truth of broadcast TV is that it is impossible to
command a significant audience without something that can
appeal to the latter half of the 25-54 demographic; they are
the generation that still makes TV the foundation of their
media consumption habits. So why would anyone well over 25 tune
in to a drama about the trials and tribulations of being 25?
Demographically speaking, "quarterlife" is a better fit for
the Internet, and yet it doesn't quite fit on that medium. The
problem is tonal; there simply has never been a quality
scripted drama that has worked online. The Internet seems more
hospitable to comedy and unscripted formats.
Once Herskovitz got back the rights to "quarterlife" from
ABC, which originally developed the series, he should have
taken the program to a young-skewing cable network that has
made scripted programming work before. An edgier version of the
series, with amped-up language and sexuality, would have been a
great fit for, say, Showtime, which doesn't have to cater to
any particular demo.
But the funny thing is, "quarterlife" may still be on the
wrong network. Bravo is the home to 100% unscripted programs
that are all about superficial materialism from fashion
("Project Runway") to dating ("The Millionaire Matchmaker").
"Quarterlife" is a scripted drama about navel-gazing
twentysomethings searching for their authentic selves.
Scheduling "quarterlife" on Bravo is like filling a Humvee with
ethanol fuel.
Here's a suggestion for NBCUniversal: Why not put
"quarterlife" on its newly acquired cable network, Oxygen? The
network has the same young-female skew as the series, and the
addition of "quarterlife" would have been just the injection of
buzz-generating original programming that would have signaled
that NBC Universal is angling to turn that network around.
Getting 3.1 million viewers is awful on NBC, but that kind
of audience on Oxygen would have execs popping Champagne corks.
It's difficult to understand why anyone involved in
"quarterlife" didn't realize that from the very beginning.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
0 comments:
Post a Comment