• by David Goetzl , January 31, 2006

NBC's "The Book of Daniel" has an afterlife. Proving that nothing remains on the cutting room floor in the age of broadband, NBC said it will stream unaired episodes on NBC.com for the next three weeks.

The controversial series was canceled last week after anemic ratings. The complete episode that would have aired Friday is available online free, with two other unseen episodes set to be streamed for a week each, starting the next two Fridays.

Conservative Christian groups had protested the show's content, which includes a pill-popping priest with a gay son and pot-dealing daughter. Several affiliates declined to air it. NBC declined comment on whether the online availability would be an issue.

The move by NBC could usher in a new era in which networks make remaining episodes of cancelled shows available on their Web sites. The strategy could drive traffic to the sites with little downside.

The "Daniel" experiment promises to be of great interest to NBC Universal's Bravo unit, which recently launched BrilliantButCancelled.com--a new Trio-branded broadband channel offering failed shows, as the defunct Trio network did. Trio went off the air on Dec. 31.