quarterlife crisis?

by Brian Reich | 2 Mar 2008, 2:00am

“Quarterlife,” the first Web-based drama to air on network television, has been canceled by NBC after a dismally rated first episode but will move to sister cable channel Bravo, people close to the show said on Thursday.

The highly touted online series about a group of young artists bombed in its NBC debut on Tuesday night, drawing the network’s lowest ratings and smallest audience for that time slot in at least 20 years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Ouch.
Let’s be honest - ‘quarterlife’ was doomed from the start.   It was designed for MySpace, to be distributed on the web, but it ended up on television instead.   The subject matter was specific to the web.   The production style was suited for online.   Everything that Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, the Emmy-winning producers of “thirtysomething” and “My So-Called Life” had put together was geared towards an audience of 20-somethings who get their content primarily (if not entirely) online.

So why did NBC buy the program and put it on TV?   My guess is because they thought they could make more money with advertisers, get a larger viewing audience to tune in, instead of log on.   They were wrong.
There is an audience out there that wants to see a well produced drama about 20-somethings.   Some are still watching television regularly, and maybe NBC will find success putting ‘quarterlife’ on one of its more targeted cable channels (though I would guess not in this case).   You see, the majority have found other ways to get their entertainment: through the web, on their mobile devices like cell phones and iPods, and within social networks (which, while online, have a whole different way of operating).
NBC should have known that, the evidence of this shift in how people get and share information is not hard to find.   I think they did know, and they chose to ignore it.
TV networks haven’t found a good reason to break their old habits and old models.   They still make plenty of money doing things the wrong way.   And they get pressure from advertisers, who don’t understand that times have changed either, to keep doing things the same way they always have.   Networks like NBC, and their advertisers, will probably make money this way, the wrong way, for a few more years.   But, the audience is changing and their (our) expectations have changed dramatically.   The networks, and their advertisers, must radically change their activities and recognize that a new world requires a new way of operating.   Until they do, you will see them fall flat on their faces time after time, just as they did in the case of ‘quarterlife.’
Stay tuned, I guess…

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