ABC - THE CW YANKS GOSSIP GIRL FROM THE WEB

While ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox continue to place shows on the Internet so that viewers may watch them on demand, the low-rated CW network said Thursday that it will reverse course and not make the remaining episodes of Gossip Girl, one of its more popular shows available for online streaming. In an interview with the New York Times, CW spokesman Paul McGuire suggested that Gossip Girl's online episodes may be cannibalizing the show's audience. Yanking the show off the Internet, he said, "is an experiment to see if this moves the [Nielsen ratings] needle at all." The show will continue to be available for purchase on Apple's iTunes store for $1.99 per episode. (The first new episode of the show since the writers' strike is due to air on April 21.

18/04/2008