• New York Times, Wednesday, December 26, 2007 11:45 AM

"Quarterlife", the highly touted original Web series that runs on several Web 2.0 sites, apparently isn't doing very well. According to The New York Times, some episodes of the show, which average eight minutes, have yet to attract 100,000 views on MySpace and YouTube. Its numbers are terrible compared to what television advertisers are used to. However, "Quarterlife" online is just a warm-up for the series' network television debut on NBC in February. That's where the real litmus test is: can the Web serve as a springboard for a new television series? "Quarterlife" will be the guinea pig.

That said, success on NBC wouldn't mask the fact that "Quarterlife" has been a dud online. Part of the problem, the Times says, is that a show needs a prominent link on a site like MySpace or YouTube to garner a significant number of page views. "Quarterlife" had this for its first episode on YouTube for 48 hours in late November. The result: 700,000 views. But after that, the series' traffic sunk. On MySpace and YouTube, "Quarterlife" has averaged 105,000 page views for its last twelve episodes.

Series creator Marshall Herskovitz isn't giving up: "I am determined to succeed on the Internet," he says--insisting that word of mouth, the most effective, most elusive marketing method, is beginning to pick up. He says that a couple hundred thousand views, which is instant death on network television, is "just the way the world is right now for scripted content on the Internet."

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