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The Latest Gossip from CW Boss Dawn Ostroff
Leighton Meester by Giovanni Rufino/The CW, Dawn Ostroff by Jesse Grant/WireImage.com
This week will be a big one in the short life of the CW. Gossip Girl returns with the first of five new episodes and the backing of its provocative promo campaign built around the show's "OMFG" moments. The campaign is getting the freshman series some attention. But will it get the ratings that the CW SRSLY needs? The Biz talked with network president Dawn Ostroff about how she's banking on GG to turn the network's fortunes around.
TVGuide.com: There was a lot of promise when the CW was created out of the most popular shows of the WB and UPN. Are you surprised that it hasn't been easier to get it to work from a ratings standpoint?
Dawn Ostroff: We had this huge challenge of migrating people. It was asking the consumer in every market to change channels, whether they were watching UPN or the WB. We put together the best of the two networks, but at the end of the day, people said, "What is this network?" It was like a blended family. What we want to try to do is create our own identity for the CW now that we have another year under our belt, and really identify what the CW is.
TVGuide.com: You're building the CW's image around Gossip Girl, but it hasn't been a big hit by traditional standards.
Ostroff: I think the word there is "traditional." Our audience tends to be a little bit younger and they are more open to consuming their content and new media in different ways. I think when you look at a show like Gossip Girl, you hear about it, you see it, there are rabid fans everywhere who can't consume enough of the show, the music, the wardrobe and it's all just [about] how you reach them. A hit takes on a different meaning and sort of a different way of reaching the viewer. I know that this show is a hit and I know it's going to be a bigger hit. It's interesting to hear that Gossip Girl is the No. 1 show downloaded on iTunes. The streaming numbers are quite large.
TVGuide.com: But you want higher ratings on the CW. Isn't that why you're not making the new episodes available online? [See: Gossip Girl Returns... But Not on the Web]
Ostroff: We've always given fans of the show a lot of online content and we plan on actually adding to that over the next few weeks. While streaming won't be a part of that, there will be more new short-form content available to Gossip Girl fans. We are, however, going to experiment and see if we can grow the ratings by keeping these five episodes exclusive to our airwaves.
TVGuide.com: You have two corporate parents, Time Warner and CBS Corp., who believed the CW would be profitable right away. Do you think they'll give the network the time it needs to grow?
Ostroff: They've been very patient and as far as I know they will continue to be patient. I think they are pleased in what they see in terms of Gossip Girl, in terms of it really helping us establish a brand and a lot of buzz for this new network. Gossip Girl is the poster child and it will be joined by a number of shows that are in that milieu. As you know, we're developing a new version of Beverly Hills, 90210....
TVGuide.com: Will that be ready for this fall?
Ostroff: We're working on it. I can't say for sure that it will be. I think we need a couple of shows that are going to be about the CW — not about what the WB was, not about what UPN was. Once we get a couple of those pieces in place, people will know what the network is and the network will start to establish its own following.
TVGuide.com: What are some of the other shows you have in the pipeline that would work to that end?
Ostroff: How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls is also based on a series of Alloy books, the same publisher as Gossip Girl. It's about a young woman in her twenties who winds up tutoring and trying to wrangle these billionaire 16-year-old twin girls being raised by their grandmother. Imagine the Olson twins 10 years ago or Paris and Nicole 10 years ago, totally running amok. The other one is Golden Hour, executive-produced by Simon Fuller, his first scripted show in the States. It's a medical show seen through the eyes of two young women, one who has her first day on the job as an EMT.
TVGuide.com: Would you say you're out of the comedy business?
Ostroff: We are looking at shows that are going to be game-changers for this network and I think it's harder and harder to find a comedy that's a game-changer. If there's something that we feel can really make a difference here, we will make it. Hour dramas and reality have a better chance of breaking out for us.
TVGuide.com: So what will the CW brand stand for going forward?
Ostroff: To a certain degree, female. Quality. Doing something that feels different, that feels special, that makes noise, that gets attention and has a youthful bent — which doesn't mean kids necessarily. It means contemporary.
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Apr 18, 2008 3:29 PM
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I love Gossip Girl!
Gossip Girl definitly an new generation of shows. Gossip Girl ALWAYS number one on itunes (beating Grey's every week) and if you compare the top 10...The top 10 is always filled with these high % rated shows..except Gossip Girl. It's ratigns increase about 30% once DVR added, and more than 50% of the hits on the CW show streaming site is JUST for Gossip Girl (In January, the first 13 episodes already had over 6 million hits...just imagine if all those peopel actually watched LIVE...).
In Canada the time slot for GG pretty early (7PM) yet we get almost a million viewers (population of Canada is 10x smaller than US). It is also, by far the most watched show on CTV broadband. I know in Canada, the PROPORTION of viewers is much greater for Gossip Girl compared to US. In fact, if the same percentage of viewers were watching in US as they were in canada, the ratings should have easily been 7-8 million viewers.
In the next 20 years or so, as this new teen geration gets older...the tv live viewings will probably decrease drastically. We watch TV WHEN we want, how we want...without commericals. Unless networks don't figure out how to make money off this new way of watching tv..I don't see how be successful....
Gossip Girl is definitly, hands down the most talked about show of the season and I hope its ratings increase because this show is SO GOOD. The storylines, cast (Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester are hands down the best actors on the show if not on CW period), NYC, fashion, music...I've NEVER been this obsessed about a show ever!
Make sure to watch LIVE on MOnday April 21st at 8PM! Don't forget CW NOT streaming the episodes online!!!!!
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Apr 18, 2008 4:31 PM
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Seriously, how do they expect this network to be around in a year and a half? Nobody watches this obscure stuff.
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Apr 18, 2008 6:14 PM
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So, let's see what TheCW wants to offer us next fall: A remake of "Beverly Hills 90210", a "Grey's Anatomy"-copy with pretty young people and a "Gossip Girl"-wannabe about filthy rich girls. Wow, way to go.
They should just try to become TheWb again. That was a network to identify yourself, at least at their best times. They had lots of shows that felt real and true to life, despite having an unrealistic setting. Everything that TheCW now has to offer, feels pretty heartless. Where is a show like "Buffy", "Felicity", "Dawson's Creek", "Angel" or "Roswell"?
I wonder how long that network survives.
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Apr 18, 2008 7:00 PM
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Ms. Ostroff is the programming genius who chose a ridiculous extra season of 7th Heaven over renewing Everwood...hmmm...Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Brothers & Sisters...good job burning bridges with Greg Berlanti...its not like he is one of the hottest show runners in the biz right now or anything, right?
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Apr 18, 2008 7:38 PM
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You're right. He's not. Those shows are drivel, too.
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Apr 18, 2008 8:06 PM
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OMFG is right. What rock does Dawn Ostroff live under if she thinks her network stands for quality? Let's see, we've got Girlicious, Beauty & the Geek, Farmer Wants a Wife, Crowned, commercials using OMFG . . . yeah, that's quality, all right.
I am so sick of the promotion that Gossip Girl gets. I am even more sick of hearing about its iTunes downloads. If they are really that magnificent, let's see the numbers in a press release. Also, let's discuss how no NBC or NBC affiliated shows are on iTunes this year, nor was LOST at the beginning of the year - all of which were top downloads.
Also, where are all the rabid Gossip Girl fans Dawn speaks of? Please, show me. I dare you.
The fact of the matter is that Gossip Girl is a bomb not too many people are watching, and I'm tired of being told otherwise.
I'm tired of getting the show rammed down my throat constantly. So tired of it, in fact, that I am done with the CW until they find a new President with better programming ideas.
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Apr 18, 2008 8:46 PM
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"Will that [90210 Mk II] be ready for this fall?
Ostroff: We're working on it. I can't say for sure that it will be. I think we need a couple of shows that are going to be about the CW — not about what the WB was, not about what UPN was."
So they're going with a series that's what FOX was?
What's wrong with that picture?
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Apr 18, 2008 9:04 PM
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I watched the British version of Golden Hour and unless this one is drastically different, I don't see how it will work. It didn't skew to the "young" audience that the CW is looking for. It was good, but only lasted one series (4 episodes) before it was canceled.
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Apr 19, 2008 12:28 AM
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For me the CW is a last thought when I'm programming my dvr for the week. I was super pissed when they picked up ANOTHER DUMB season of 7th H, instead of Everwood. I had to deal because I loved my GG and VM. So it used to be a little more prominent because I was such a Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls fan. I don't think that I can get over not picking up VM that easily. Especially since it has been replaced with Farmer picks a wife. Barf. I think the only show that I'm regularly watching on the CW is Aliens in America. I like Gossip Girl enough, but now that it's on Mondays and it's not gonna be screened online, I'm not going to see it anymore. I like Booth and Bones on Bones and Tony and Abby on NCIS a lot more than GG, but I'm still sad that I wont see it.
So, yeah ehh cw
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Apr 19, 2008 3:58 AM
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I don't get the CW. I watched GG and Reaper online as that was my ONLY choice. Has Dawn O. taken that into consideration? There have to be lots of other people in rural locations whose cable doesn't offer it. Or am I the only one!!!????
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Apr 19, 2008 9:43 AM
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The problems with directing the entire network toward any group of people are that
A. they usually don't know what the demographic actually wants and base their opinions on outdated stereotypes
and
B. you're alienating another huge chunk of viewers. What about the Smallville, or Supernatural audience that has been loyal to them? Why not try for more shows that would appeal to us on a night or two?
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Apr 19, 2008 11:19 AM
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Dawn's reign at The CW has been the very definition of failure. She canceled critical darlings (Everwood, Veronica Mars), renewed tired/dead series (7th Heaven), and blew her chance to have Gilmore Girls as a tentpole around which to structure an emerging network. It is rumored that CBS is simply uninterested in shows that aren't hits right out of the gate, and that Ostroff is just their pawn. There might be some truth to that, but it hardly addresses the problem. With only 2 real "hits" (Chris and GG), the future of the CW is dark indeed.
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Apr 19, 2008 2:20 PM
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All about Gossip Girl, no mention of Reaper (or any other show on the network). Big surprise there. I really do hate that woman.
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Apr 19, 2008 2:40 PM
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This network has been doomed since the beginning because of poor decisions. Some people in this commentary line have already named a few, but I'll name another...cancelling "Reba" even though it was one of their top-rated shows. They day they made that bone-headed move I said that it would prove to be a bad one (in a string of other very bad ones) and I would no longer watch their network. I'm glad to see my prediction has come true; "Reba" deserved far better than it got from the CW.
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Apr 19, 2008 2:58 PM
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