Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:06 PM PT

 

quarterlife’s TV Debut D.O.A.

In a development that could kill the network dreams of other fledgling web series, quarterlife’s premiere on NBC last night bombed. TV by the Numbers paints the not-so-pretty picture: quarterlife came in last place in its time slot, with a mere 3.86 million viewers. An ABC Primetime news special won the hour with 7.64 million viewers, and even the wait-wasn’t-that-canceled Jericho did way better, attracting 6.9 million people.

Over in the quarterlife forums, the faithful are licking their wounds, but remain confident that once the show is switched to its Sunday night slot, everything will be better. Elsewhere on the boards, quarterlifers have created a special “Welcome to the New group from NBC” thread to greet the influx of new fans — but as of this writing, only two noobs had posted a response (and they had seen the show on MTV).

The disappointing debut combined with the end of the writers’ strike could spell an early demise for the show’s TV aspirations. Maybe quarterlife star Bitsie Tulloch needs to find the time to start interacting with quarterlife fans online after all. The show will need all the help it can get.

UPDATE: Our own Liz Gannes spoke with quarterlife creator Marshall Herskovitz at the Harvard Business School Entertainment and Media Conference today. In a nice moment of candor, even Herskovitz admitted that the show “bombed” last night, and offered up some interesting commentary.

Herskovitz said “We shouldn’t have been on a network to begin with. Our show, probably if it was going to TV should have been on a cable network, and that’s probably where we’re going to end up.”

When asked about critics who said quarterlife was just a failed TV show on the web, and now it’s back on television where it belongs, Herskovitz said “I watched it last night, and when you saw it on TV it didn’t look like TV, and when you saw it on the Internet it didn’t look like the Internet.”

Liz has promised to post more good bits of info from the show, so check back later for her story.

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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. Not to be self-aggrandizing (but to be self-aggrandizing), don’t say I didn’t tell ya so:

    http://www.reelpopblog.com/2008/02/quarterlife-wil.html

    There’s not much chance Quarterlife’s going to do better up against Oprah’s Big Give…

    Steve Bryant on February 27th, 2008 at 12:43 pm - Permalink

  2. Oh no! Last night was the first time I saw Quarterlife and I really liked it!

    Dorothee on February 27th, 2008 at 12:54 pm - Permalink

  3. Ratings is only one barometer – with this type of multi-platform experience, it is also about engagement too (it is concerning that engagement isn’t happening on that board).

    This type of cross-platform series is the future, but early tries may not always get the ratings that made-for-TV shows are receiving, but they are important experiments nonetheless. Be kind. :)

    Frank Sinton on February 27th, 2008 at 1:26 pm - Permalink

  4. You must also consider that it was a replay of the their most watched webisode. It wasnt new material, only new to network viewers that arent into new media. Its ratings probably lacked most of its core viewers that have seen that episode a million times.

    dap1 on February 27th, 2008 at 2:13 pm - Permalink

  5. [...] = FAIL NewTeeVee, among plenty of others, has noted that last night’s network TV premier (yes, it had already [...]

    quarterlife = FAIL « MyMediaMusings on February 27th, 2008 at 2:26 pm - Permalink

  6. I haven’t watched it yet but I recorded it on my DVR (along with Jericho.) I’m really looking forward to seeing it in HD on my TV. Now my wife and I can watch it together.

    It’s too bad about the ratings but I’m wondering how much promotion it received on TV before it aired. I just happened to see it in the DVR guide by accident and I already knew what it was. If NBC wants the TV viewers they’ll have to promote it and not just count on the fans who saw it on the internet to tune in and watch it again. TV is a different audience.

    Eric Susch on February 27th, 2008 at 2:48 pm - Permalink

  7. I agree with Frank. Using the # of viewers at one point in time isn’t the point of new media. It’s the number of views after it’s shown and the aggregate views years after the show is released.

    of viewers for one measly time slot is a really old metric.

    rb on February 27th, 2008 at 2:53 pm - Permalink

  8. Unfortunately rb, viewership numbers are the top metric for the networks right now.

    And even if the online vid site does well, that won’t please TV advertisers. And I wouldn’t expect Quarterlife’s fans to put up a Jericho-esque battle for the series, either. 3M viewers won’t keep you on network TV for long.

    Steve Bryant on February 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm - Permalink

  9. [...] Can’t Solve New Media With Marketing Jump to Comments Douglas said to me regarding the disappointing Quarterlife debut: it just goes to show that you can’t market crap (or something like [...]

    You Can’t Solve New Media With Marketing « Kent’s Official Blog on February 27th, 2008 at 5:00 pm - Permalink

  10. I think NBC rushed it and I think it hurt them badly.

    Though I’m not a huge fan of the show, it could’ve done better if what went on TV was completely new and they continued doing some form of web series online — appease both fans and hope for crossover.

    Honestly, I’m just not sure it’s strong enough as a show in general — that is, internet TV or not, it needs a better script to appeal to people.

    But then again, I know very little about very much.

    Yuri Baranovsky on February 28th, 2008 at 1:39 am - Permalink

  11. [...] for the hour and viewers trailed off in the second half of the show. Creator Marshall Herskovitz said the show “bombed” and that it “shouldn’t have been on a network to begin with.” He thinks cable is [...]

    Quarterlife - NBC - Amazon - MSNBC - Apple - MediaBytes February 28, 2008 | MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer on February 28th, 2008 at 4:00 am - Permalink

  12. [...] for the hour and viewers trailed off in the second half of the show. Creator Marshall Herskovitz said the show “bombed” and that it “shouldn’t have been on a network to begin with.” He thinks cable is [...]

    Quarterlife - Microsoft - Amazon - MSNBC - Apple - MediaBytes February 28, 2008 | MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer on February 28th, 2008 at 4:38 am - Permalink

  13. [...] quarterlife is just a shorter version of, uhh, quarterlife, now that it’s on TV (but probably not for long). Case in point: [...]

    Disney Launches Stage 9, Squeegees « NewTeeVee on February 28th, 2008 at 8:53 am - Permalink

  14. [...] Thank NBC Web series quarterlife “bombed” in its debut on NBC, Marshall Herskovitz told us yesterday. Backpedaling on his candid in-person remarks, Herskovitz’ PR issued a statement [...]

    quarterlife Remembers to Thank NBC « NewTeeVee on February 28th, 2008 at 12:14 pm - Permalink

  15. [...] Yanked from NBC, Headed to Bravo quarterlife, following its unimpressive debut on NBC last night and creator Marshall Herskovitz’ comments that the show would work better [...]

    quarterlife Yanked from NBC, Headed to Bravo « NewTeeVee on February 28th, 2008 at 1:27 pm - Permalink

  16. [...] debut on NBC didn’t pull in big numbers.  In fact it came last in its timeslot with a mere 3.86 million viewers.  Now comes word that it [...]

    Running With My Eyes Closed › quarterlife Moves to Bravo on February 28th, 2008 at 2:04 pm - Permalink

  17. Thank GOD!!! That show is terrible. I hope they yank it entirely. How does a bunch of middle aged men know what 25 year olds want to watch?

    SlickDealer on February 28th, 2008 at 3:16 pm - Permalink

  18. [...] the show finally aired on network this week, comparatively it didn’t do very well and has since been moved to cable. There’s some discussion about the content out there but [...]

    Web-To-TV Show Gets Bumped About on PSFK on February 29th, 2008 at 6:30 am - Permalink

  19. Liz was very nice in person and I was glad to meet her finally. I’m afraid, though, that she might have misunderstood what I was saying. The words she quoted were, “when you saw it on TV it didn’t look like TV, and when you saw it on the Internet it didn’t look like the Internet,” but that was part of a larger discussion, the simplest version being: my show is what it is — it’s not a TV show and it also doesn’t fit with most of the scripted series so far made directly for the Internet. I’m not entirely sure why Liz would construe this as a negative — I certainly don’t. But let’s take it farther: the real point I was making was that several Internet pundits have dismissed the online version of “quarterlife” as essentially a TV show in sheep’s clothing, a failed pilot trussed up and thrown to the Internet where presumably I thought people wouldn’t know any better. Even the eight minute segments added up to hour-long stories — the whole thing was clearly just a cut-up TV show. And I therefore got what I deserved when it went to television: the failed TV pilot failed for real.

    Fine, except that what I knew in those first few seconds was actually something very different: I knew that “quarterlife” wasn’t television. Think what you will of my past work, but I’ve been at this a long time and I know the DNA of television, I know how it manifests itself in story, casting, direction, acting, lighting, photography, set design, costume design, editing, etc., etc. And in every one of those areas and more, “quarterlife” is just not a television show. It’s more ragged, more chaotic, more truthful, less sensationalistic, less presentational, a hundred things you might like or dislike, but trust me, I know just what I’d have to do to turn “quarterlife” into a television show — and it ain’t one now. And I knew in those seconds that a network audience wasn’t going to respond to it — not because it’s bad, though many I’m sure will disagree — but because it just isn’t….television.
    Of course I hoped things would be different, all along I hoped that a large TV audience would be attracted to this other thing, I believed they’d be attracted to it — but in those first few seconds, thirty years of experience told me otherwise. I suddenly had no doubt about the outcome: we were dead. I even knew what the rating would be and said it out loud. Ask the people in the room.
    Why bother to rehash this now? Because “quarterlife” has indeed succeeded on the Internet, by any measure, but especially by the measure Chris Albrecht himself suggested in September: 100K views in the first 24 hours. We are averaging slightly over that across 33 webisodes. And it’s worth rehashing because “quarterlife” would indeed be a success on a cable network, with the 3.1 million viewers we got on Tuesday.
    So, yes, it’s been embarrassing to live this experiment in public, and to fail on television so spectacularly — trust me, you don’t want to experience that — but perhaps those who make their spiritual home in the digital world and distrust me or my motives, or my ability to understand people in their twenties, or any other sins I might be guilty of, including lack of talent — might pause for a moment and realize that the only place I’ve failed is on a big television network — and is this the place to judge me for that? Believe me, I feel really bad about it, in spite of Liz’s skepticism about my later statement. I have nothing but gratitude to NBC for giving us a shot. I caused them to lose a lot of money, which I also feel bad about; I let down Ben Silverman, whom I greatly respect and like. I got Jeff Zucker really mad at me. The whole situation sucks, not least because a two-year labor of love has very likely been dealt a mortal blow.
    So forgive me if I insist — in the midst of all this blood-letting — on the one thing I know is true: like it or hate it, “quarterlife” really is an Internet show.

    Marshall Herskovitz on March 1st, 2008 at 12:47 pm - Permalink

  20. quote: “quarterlife” really is an Internet show.

    …or a cable show. Or wherever else I can sell it.

    Marshall, you really shouldn’t be surprised to be judged for failing on a TV network as someone who knows “the DNA of television”.

    But let’s forget your failure on TV because now you’re practically TRON, right?

    Wirehead on March 2nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm - Permalink

  21. Hi Marshall,

    I don’t think I implied your comment was negative. Thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts.

    Thanks,
    Liz

    Liz Gannes on March 2nd, 2008 at 9:25 pm - Permalink

  22. [...] them play that same role on the Web seem quite good? quarterlife creator, Marshall Herskovitz put it best when he said: “when you saw it on TV it didn’t look like TV, and when you saw it on the [...]

    Community Guy, Jake McKee - quarterlife hits The Big Show… and then gets sent home. on March 4th, 2008 at 9:28 pm - Permalink

  23. [...] Web-to-TV Prospects on Deck Quarterlife’s low ratings be damned, networks are tapping more new content to make the leap from Internet to oldteevee. NBC [...]

    New Web-to-TV Prospects on Deck « NewTeeVee on April 17th, 2008 at 10:53 am - Permalink

  24. [...] because Quarterlife failed abysmally on TV doesn’t mean it isn’t any good – everybody knows that the general TV-watching [...]

    Revver blog on April 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pm - Permalink

  25. [...] all know what happened, but don’t write off our article just yet: quarterlife’s stumble on TV is still an [...]

    space shank media - blog - archive » Interview with quarterlife’s Marshall Herskovitz on May 24th, 2008 at 11:59 am - Permalink

  26. [...] Quarterlife’s TV debut DOA [...]

    Anchor Cove » Nanosecondlife: Quarterlife Goes From NBC To Cable on January 6th, 2009 at 3:22 pm - Permalink

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