Web Series 'Quarterlife' Cancelled by NBC, After Ratings Bomb

"Quarterlife," the first Web-based drama to air on network television, has been canceled by NBC after a dismally rated first episode but will move to sister cable channel Bravo, people close to the show said on Thursday.

The highly touted online series about a group of young artists bombed in its NBC debut on Tuesday night, drawing the network's lowest ratings and smallest audience for that time slot in at least 20 years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The show ranked a distant third place for the 10 p.m. hour, averaging just 3.1 million viewers and a meager 1.3 rating among advertisers' favorite demographic, adults aged 18 to 49, the precise audience for whom the series was designed.

The program had been scheduled to move to Sundays on NBC starting March 2.

But two sources close to the program, though not authorized to speak publicly about its scheduling, said "quarterlife" has been removed from the NBC lineup.

NBC has learned that just because something is popular on YouTube doesn't mean it will be a hit on the boob tube. Quarterlife, a web series that premiered as 36 eight-minute episodes in November, aired last night on NBC as an hour-long drama. While it's set to air five more episodes on Sunday nights, last night's ratings were pretty dismal.

According to Variety, the show reached 3.9 million
viewers when it premiered Tuesday. This made NBC finish third amongst broadcast networks, behind Fox, which aired an extended American Idol that snagged 28.4 million (!) viewers. Even the cringe-worthy Back to You, with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, and the struggling Jericho pulled in more viewers (12.3 million and 6.9 million respectively).

I'm not sure why NBC thought people would tune in to a show every week that they can watch all at once on their computers.