The highly publicized web-based drama series “quarterlife” flopped in its NBC debut. It generated the network’s worst ratings for its time slot in at least 20 years, Nielsen Media Research reported.
The made-for-Internet series, a show about the urban lives of six young artists was designed to appeal to viewers aged 18 to 49, the audience most desired by television advertisers. But the show’s dismal performance in its prime-time network launch at the end of February raised doubts about whether the show could continue.
“Quarterlife” was originally created for the social-networking site MySpace.com by Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, Emmy-winning producers of “thirtysomething” and “My So-Called Life”. The series consists of 36 eight-minute “webisodes” and began running on MySpace.TVcom and quarterlife.com in November 2007.
In the midst of the Hollywood writers strike, NBC announced it was picking up the series as a mid-season replacement show, and invested in heavy promotion of the drama series in the run-up to its prime-time launch.
