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UPDATE: Sources say Quarterlife will move from NBC to NBC Universal-owned Bravo.
The announcement that Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz had sold their 36-episode Internet show Quarterlife to NBC for a network series caused a lot of talk during the writers strike. (See my previous, Zwick/Herskovitz: WGA Friends Or Foes?) The show was seen as the first wave of an independent production future on the Internet for writers. But when NBC bought Quarterlife during the strike (after ABC passed years earlier on it as a TV series), striking writers questioned whether it was morally right for Herskovitz and Zwick, both WGA members, to help a network. But bad news: Quarterlife debuted last night and it bombed big-time. The team behind thirtysomething and My So-Called Life recorded NBC’s worst time-period performance in at least 17 years despite The Biggest Loser as a lead-in. Agents are telling me that as a result the show may only get one or two airings on NBC.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Check this out. Google “quarterlife” and click on the cached version of the page. It takes a little while to load, but you’ll see the NBC logo with an announcement of the premiere episode on Tuesday night. Then check out the current page and the NBC logo is strangely missing with no update on when the next episode will air. Supposedly the regular time slot is on Sundays at 9 pm. We’ll see.
Obi, you are right on. This show is anachronistic, it’s the style of thirtysomething 20 years too late.
If you hated quarterlife, I encourage you to check out 2/8 Life, a series we just released. (www.icn.tv/series/28life) It pokes fun at quarterlife, but we also think it can stand on its own as a better example of what a web series can be.
I think this is actually an example of little more than Quarterlife being an amazingly crappy show. The type of screen was of little consequence. Way to go NBC! Keep that quality coming!
Hmmm, makes a good point. A damn good point. Post-strike, destroy the business model BEFORE it catches on. Writers OWNING their own shows! That’s just crazy! We CLEARLY need networks, and studios. Right?
Peggy Lane O’Rourke
Don’t worry, it is Biggest Loser’s fault. The only reason why that show is still on the air is because of Jeff Zucker.
The golf telecast?? Is that really where you should be promoting a show geared toward 20-something year-olds?
I’m in that age group and frankly, I didn’t know it was on until I flipped to NBC by accident at that time…and, yes, I KNEW that NBC was planning on premiering it at some point this month, but that’s because I read it in the trades, not because I saw any real ads geared towards a 24-year old.
Terrible promoting, even worse show.
Why is everyone so bitter? What’s exciting is the fact that a major network took the shot on programming from the meidum. The question we all should be answering has nothing to do with marketing, scheduling or ratings, it has to do with audience feedback on websites and the practical reality of where it fell short technically in migrating from the web to the net. Although Herskovitz seems to be absorbing the blow for the network, having an understanding as to what needs to be done for the second tier platform while your shooting for the first tier, is the bigger piece of information. People, the seamless migration and cross platforming of internet and television is all our futures. In failure there is much to be gained. Ironically, until the show aired, I have to believe you all had only wished you were the firs to have achieved what they did… easy to pile on in failure, shortsighted not to learn from it.
Just heard NBC has already guillotined this sappy piece of dreck.
I really hope the ghost of David Sarnoff pays Mr. Zucker a visit and slimes him for greenlighting this brain-liquefying abomination (I turned it off after 15 minutes).
Fortunately, there’s other web-first projects in the works. Sancutary, which benefits from Stargate stars, also started as a web project and it’s expected to do well.
That show bombed on the internet and it bombed on TV. Why the surprise that nobody wants to watch a bunch of spoiled twentysomethings bitch and moan about nothing interesting?
And the producers ought to be kicked out of the WGA for selling product to a network (struck company) during a strike.
No suprise. Sucky = Sucky no matter which medium it’s produced in.
I don’t care why it failed to find an audience, but I’m disappointed, because I really liked it. I hope the producers truly are rich enough to afford continuing it as a vanity project because I’ll miss it when it runs out of episodes.
Maybe the real target demographic is people who liked My So Called Life, rather than people in the age group of the show’s characters.
I have to agree that Quaterlife is dated and self absorbed misery for a target demo that should be anything but. Hope and adventure win out, not a mirror of their boring sad little lives. Although, I’m sure the makers of Prozac might have signed on.
I think I’ll bake some cookies.
it was awesome
How many people on the picket line at the WGA Strike were working before the strike..The internet provides hope for the future, let’s not write off the possibilities as a great incubator for future series. So one series didn’t work outside of the online world, let’s not kill the future golden goose, or what was the strike really all about..