Gossip Girls Returns...to TV Screens Only

In the latest episode of Television Networks Do the Darnedest Things, CW poster child Gossip Girl returns with five post-strike episodes to be aired in a new, Monday nights at 8 p.m. timeslot -- and the thousands of 15-year-old girls who watch it better remember to set their DVRs, because TV's the only place where they're going to get their Gossip fix.

In a harebrained scheme, The CW has decided not to stream the remaining five episodes on its website after they air, in what C-Dub President Dawn Ostroff calls in an interview with TV Guide, an "experiment," to "see if we can grow the ratings by keeping these five episodes exclusive to our airwaves."

Yeah, I know: Huuuuuuuuh?

Alienating your viewers won't make Gossip Girl a ratings hit, I daresay. Neither will forcing its fanbase  (who obviously skew younger, and are more adherent to new media like free streaming) to change their viewing habits. Though the episodes will still be available for download on iTunes (where it's a regular top 10 download) the day after, I'd imagine more online viewers opt for free-with-ads than two-bucks-for-no-ads. But I could be wrong (doubt it).

It's obvious why C-Dub's pulling the plug -- more and more television viewers are changing their viewing habits to include online streaming with sites like Hulu, time-shifting with DVRs, and iTunes. People are watching whenever they want to because they can, and because its nearly just as easy as turning on the tube. For example: 10 p.m. too late to watch Lost? No problem. Just watch it tomorrow morning on ABC's website for free. Or tomorrow night. Or next week. Or next year. (Now this isn't the case for every network website, but I do believe that ABC and NBC keep entire season's worth of shows on their sites.)

It's so odd to hear networks recoil from a problem they helped create: did they expect us not to take advantage of free (ad-supported), watch-whenever-I-please, streaming? We just came out of a four-month strike that held this problem at its very center, so why take a backwards route? I know Gossip Girl isn't a ratings prize (it doesn't even crack the Nielsen Top 100), but I remember how its very early back-nine order came off the strength of the online streaming, DVR ratings, and iTunes download numbers. Pulling the streams isn't offensive outright, but it creates an unnecessary feeling that this could start a trend among networks. Ratings down? Stop the streaming. Heh.

Still doesn't make any sense.

Will this boost Gossip Girl's numbers? Maybe, maybe not. If it did, I doubt it would last very long: fans will probably be annoyed by how they can only watch their favorite show in one hour out of the entire week (or two if you count the Sunday reruns). I would.