Early last season, before this series surfaced, I had suggested that since The CW was rather keen on re-making old FOX series, that they needed to contact Mr. Aaron Spellings estate, and line up rights for a re-make of 'Models, Inc.', which was a spin-off from 'Beverly Hills 90210' via 'Melrose Place: Original Series'.
But, alas, the higher-ups at The CW decided to remake 'Melrose Place', and to instead do an imitation of 'Models, Inc.' in their new series, 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'.
From the first hour, the pilot, I can say that the producers, including Mr. Ashton Kutchner, have created a visually compelling hour that is completely high-camp right down the line, with cheesey scripting, amateurishly stiff acting, but lots of what they used to call T&A cheesecake/beefcake to keep viewer attention glued.
After an hour of TBL, I am pleasantly reminded of those excellent MyNetworkTV telenovellas from a few seasons back. TBL shares many of the production values and obvious cost-cutting (cast, talented writers, etc.) to those landmark MyTV series, which were delivered at a cost reportedly in the 200K/hour range. Hopefully, The CW will pass along some of this cost-cutting to the viewers in the form of an enlarged season order of, say, 26 episodes.
Once we have three seasons of 'The Beautiful Life: TBL', it will serve as a wonderful telenovella-companion series to the 67 hours of 'Fashion House: FH' starring Miss Morgan Fairchild and Miss Bo Derek.
The CW's 'The Beautiful Life: TBL' shows us all the soapy world that exists behind the catwalk.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: dumont,
The highlight of the series is certainly the lead Sara Paxton. The rest of the show? No way is it in the same league as timeslot competition Glee or Modern Family. In another timeslot I might give this a more serious try but I don't really feel too bad about dropping it due to DVR conflicts either.
I am still reeling in shock from the overnights. Not since the 'Hidden Palms' debut have I seen an overnight number so shockingly, undeservedly skinny.
It cannot be too soon to initiate a 'Save The Beautiful Life: TBL' campaign, to save this frothy, frolicky romp starring the exotic beauty, Miss Mischa Barton.
Miss Mischa Barton needs your help to save her new series...send Miss Ostroff a postcard with three reasons why you want to see a full season of 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'
You are starting a campaign to save TBL already??? Wow...that's fast. I admire your gusto.
quote:
Originally posted by dumont: Save 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'
I am still reeling in shock from the overnights. Not since the 'Hidden Palms' debut have I seen an overnight number so shockingly, undeservedly skinny.
It cannot be too soon to initiate a 'Save The Beautiful Life: TBL' campaign, to save this frothy, frolicky romp starring the exotic beauty, Miss Mischa Barton.
Miss Mischa Barton needs your help to save her new series...send Miss Ostroff a postcard with three reasons why you want to see a full season of 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'
'The Beautiful Life: TBL' Finishes Week Watched by 1.5% of all Young Adults and 3.4 Million Viewers
It was a wise strategy by The CW to give 'The Beautiful Life: TBL' two encores of the pilot on Friday and Sunday night.
The Friday encore retained 83% of the A18-49s from 'Smallville', and according to travisyanan, it actually showed better W18-34 numbers than it did in its Wednesday premiere.
Last night, the second encore of 'The Beautiful Life: TBL' pilot retained a rock-solid 100% of its lead-in movies' A18-34 and A18-49 numbers.
For the week, 'The Beautiful Life: TBL' pilot showed a Nielsen cume of 1.5 in A18-49 and 3,438,500 P2+ viewers over three airings.
All fans of the series anxiously await the numbers for The CW this Wednesday to see how many of those 1.5% of young adults and 3.4 million viewers will come back for episode two of 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'.
The CW's 'The Beautiful Life: TBL' showed 100% retention of A18-34s and A18-49s from WAR GAMES: THE DEAD CODE and 83% retention of A18-49s from 'Smallville'.
Originally posted by TravisYanan: Wednesday broadcast finals
The Beautiful Life: TBL - 1.046 million viewers - 0.7/1 HH - 0.5/1 A18-49 - 0.6/2 A18-34 - 0.9/2 W18-34 *next week, should it air another episode, expect to see TBL:TBL under 1M viewers*
If I was able to experience a flash of elation over the ABC Comedy Wednesday Nielsens, the numbers for 'The Beautiful Life: TBL' are just devastating to fans of the series.
I cannot fathom why this series is not connecting through to the 'America's Next Top Model' viewership. It is a cleverly written, resplendently performed and brilliantly filmed hour that looks behind the scenes of the modeling world in a verite way that FOX's 'Models, Inc' tried to but never really achieved.
I agree with others in this posting string who are advocating a move of 'The Beautiful Life: TBL' to Friday nights where it can find its audience. As travisyanan pointed out last week, the Friday encore drew more of The CW's currency demo W18-34s than the Wednesday original episode did.
Miss Ostroff must do something soon to save 'The Beautiful Life: TBL' by getting it away from 'Glee' and the ABC comedies.
Miss Mischa Barton can only be wondering what's happened to all her fans of 'The O.C.' who, so far, haven't found her new series 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'.
Originally posted by Marc Berman: FYI...from The CW:
Production has ceased on THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE in New York. The show will be pulled from The CW’s schedule immediately. Timeslot replacement will be announced shortly.
The CW has announced that 'Melrose Place' encores will fill the timeslot of cancelled series 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'.
Thefutoncritic.com reported earlier today that production on the seventh episode was suspended, and that six episodes were finished filming.
It is uncertain at this point whether the remaining four filmed episodes had completed their post-production mixing.
I really hope that, as an act of kindess to fans, The CW skeds the remaining four episodes of 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'. Two ideas:
Airing over the Christmas-New Years holidays could be a possibility. At that time, HUT levels are low and when The CW can afford to air a lower-rated series without diminishing their weekly average.
Fresh content for next summer, to be used like 'Easy Money' and 'Valentine' were deployed earlier this summer.
'The Beautiful Life: TBL' cancelled today after only two struts down the runway.
Originally posted by Marc Berman: FYI...from The CW:
Production has ceased on THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE in New York. The show will be pulled from The CW’s schedule immediately. Timeslot replacement will be announced shortly.
The CW has announced that 'Melrose Place' encores will fill the timeslot of cancelled series 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'.
Thefutoncritic.com reported earlier today that production on the seventh episode was suspended, and that six episodes were finished filming.
It is uncertain at this point whether the remaining four filmed episodes had completed their post-production mixing.
I really hope that, as an act of kindess to fans, The CW skeds the remaining four episodes of 'The Beautiful Life: TBL'. Two ideas:
Airing over the Christmas-New Years holidays could be a possibility. At that time, HUT levels are low and when The CW can afford to air a lower-rated series without diminishing their weekly average.
Fresh content for next summer, to be used like 'Easy Money' and 'Valentine' were deployed earlier this summer.
'The Beautiful Life: TBL' cancelled today after only two struts down the runway.
I don't know if they will ever bother to show the unaired episodes---probably not.
But one thing is very clear Katylst will never work with the CW again under the present management.
The lack of support and publicity that went into the launch of TBL was probably the lowest ever on record and Mr Kushner and his production company were just voted as one of the up and comers in the industry. Way to go CW, piss off the future movers and shakers. Grim isn't the word for it.
