The CW has picked up the second year of a continuing special (sponsored by OfficeMAX) that is a prank-show concept originally aired on ABC Family.

OfficeMax Goes Back to School

With hidden-camera / video-blooper shows doing so well this summer (NBC's Most Outrageous Moments, ABC's Just for Laughs and America's Funniest Home Videos), can prank-shows strike ratings gold for The CW?

This special will air in Seventh Heaven's slot on Sunday August 5th, and if it does well, it just serve as a quasi-pilot for Ms. Ostroff should her news/reality fall programs CWNow and Online Nation not hit it with viewers.

Interesting hour of television, very Punk'd-inspired, but with a noble outcome with the funding of a high schools soon-to-close music department.

What intrigued me about this special was the heavy integration of Office Max into the content...the title, providing the money "prize", and then all those back-to-school ads in between...and that rush of students running about at the end of episode picking up 500 hi-lighters of this and 500 of that in their local Office Max. Such in-program sponsor celebration as this would make even a veteran advertorial producer blush.

An enjoyable special. Hopefully The CW will do further specials down the road with other high schools facing unique challenges.

And that bonus concert by The All-American Rejects was an added treat, though it surely must be in promotion of some album or i-Pod release. There's no way they did it out of the kindness of their hearts.

Considering how poorly the CW Sundays have been lately, I'm guessing if its over 2 million and a 1 in the demo, then it will be back.

quote:

Originally posted by dumont:
And that bonus concert by The All-American Rejects was an added treat, though it surely must be in promotion of some album or i-Pod release. There's no way they did it out of the kindness of their hearts.

Can't stand them.

quote:

Originally posted by mushu_jj:
Considering how poorly the CW Sundays have been lately, I'm guessing if its over 2 million and a 1 in the demo, then it will be back.

quote:

From Mr. Berman's ratings report today:

CW special called Officemax (Viewers: #5, 686,000; A18-49: #5, 0.2/ 1). As for the CW’s Officemax, yes…that is now the lowest rated show in the history of the almost one-year-old network.

With such a grim number, I think that The CW just might let another network pick up this special for future editions. MTV? The N? VH-1 perhaps?

For those who missed last nights broadcast (like 98.2% of young America), it is going to be encored by The CW on Wednesday August 8th at 3 pm, pre-empting What I Like About You from their daytime line-up.