Official: “Quarterlife” = Failure

After one airing with disastrously low ratings, the drama that moved from the Internet to NBC is canceled, completed episodes sent to cable TV and back to the Internet. Creators plan to keep it going.

So much for the great experiment of moving a drama from the Internet to TV. After one almost historically low rated airing, NBC has cancelled the drama “Quarterlife” and will burn off the remaining five episodes some time soon on the Bravo cable channel.

As I reported Wednesday, “Quarterlife” drew just over three million viewers to its heavily advertised premiere, making it the lowest rating show in the time period for NBC in close to two decades.

In a statement Marshall Herskovitz said: “I am happy to say that the reports of ‘Quarterlife’s’ demise are exaggerated. We’re deeply grateful for NBC’s efforts to make “Quarterlife’ a success on network television. However, I’ve always had concerns about whether ‘Quarterlife’ was the kind of show that could pull in the big numbers necessary to succeed on a major broadcast network. It is important to remember that ‘Quarterlife’ has already proved itself as a successful online series and social network with millions of enthusiastic fans. We live in a media world today where many shows are considered successful on cable networks with audiences that are a fraction of those on the Big Four. I’m confident that ‘Quarterlife’ will find the right home on television as well.”

In comments at the Harvard Business School Entertainment & Media Conference on Thursday, “Quarterlife” co-creator Marshall Herskovitz said it probably should never have gone on the network, and was better suited to cable TV or the Internet, where a smaller audience would still be considered acceptable. Herskovitz and Zwick have said they will continue “Quarterlife” on the Internet and will continue to build an associated social networking site.

“Quarterlife” was acquired by NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman during the writers’ strike, when it appeared to be material already written which could be quickly adapted for the network. At that time it was unclear when there would be other new programming. Since then the strike has ended, and questions have been raised about re-purposing the shows which have already been seen by many in their target audience of young women online.

NBC is expected to run an episode of “Deal Or No Deal” on Sunday at nine in place of “Quarterlife.” There is no set time for the remaining episodes to air on Bravo, which like NBC is owned by NBC Universal, but a network source said it probably would be fairly soon.