'What we feel like we're doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first,' Ashton Kutcher said. 'A show that couldn't find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web.'
- December 17, 2009
AceShowbiz -
Thanks to HP and YouTube, "The Beautiful Life: TBL" gets a second chance at life. The axed drama show will air the two episodes that The CW scheduled to air but did not eventually, plus the three episodes that went into production but never ran.
Unlike the initial plan to air the unseen episodes on The CW this Summer, it will now be revived on the popular video-sharing website starting Monday, December 21. According to Reuters, the first two episodes that managed to air on the network would be re-aired on YouTube starting this Thursday without commercial breaks.
"When 'The Beautiful Life' concluded on broadcast television, we were deluged by fans imploring us to bring back 'TBL'," producer Ashton Kutcher said. "Working with innovative companies like HP and YouTube, we are thrilled to be ending this year by releasing the remaining episodes of 'The Beautiful Life' and taking part in a unique marketing program that could only occur online."
While naturally YouTube presents webisodes about 5 to 15 minutes long, Kutcher is confident that the 40-minute episodes will live up to its expectation. "I would bargain that people will be willing to sit a lot longer if the picture looks a lot better," Kutcher told Reuters.
Kutcher is also looking far in the future of the show, saying that if the show could gather enough audience, then he would be able to attract sponsors to finance more episodes solely for web.
