Just letting you know it's at #1 right now. Most people I know (being the target demo that we are) watch both Gossip Girl and The Hills, neither one live. But it is GG that everyone discusses and argues about- even in my Contemporary Civilization class. How is Nate and Chuck's "friendship" a commentary on the need to legalize gay marriage in America?
Basically, tv producers need to find a way to cash in on the cultural phenomenon that GG has become- because it really is one. We want to buy those clothes, we text and blog about it constantly, we download it off illegal websites because it takes way too freaking long to come on iTunes and the CW streaming site sucks. Trust me, people don't talk or care about The Hills nearly this much.
John
· 1 year ago
Gilmore Girls was not streamed over the internet last year.
Robert Seidman
· 1 year ago
Oh it was streamed -- just not by the CW. :)
And soholove, thank you for the feedback. I'm still soaking it all in.
Jack
· 1 year ago
OMG, I just cannot believe it. Nobody is buying the Gossip Girl hype that The CW is just throwing in our faces with fuc**** shovels. The show is not performing good because the show is not good. Simple equation.
Oh, and about the 'Best. Show. Ever.' quote on the cover story of NY magazine... Do these people watch or have ever watched a little thing called TV?
S.
· 1 year ago
Thank you so much for calling CW on their crap. Gossip Girls is not a hit no matter how you spin it. From reading around the internet, you are right they share a viewership with The Hill, the dumbest of the 12-34 females. They both cater to the lowest common denominator of the demographic, and The Hill there has the advantage, it's even worse, and dumber than Gossip Girls.
Denise
· 1 year ago
I just have to say how much I enjoy these articles. This is one example of you writing what I think.
Mandi
· 1 year ago
Robert- I thought the NY Mag cover was supposed to be funny. Like 'OMG this show is like totally the best show ever!' playing off the ditzy valley girl vibe the show has. But I may be wrong in which case I would have to assume that no one at NY Mag has watched a television show. Ever.
Also-- side note-- I'm in CW's target market and I never missed an episode of Gilmore Girls. Gossip Girls however is a mean spirited superficial crapfest which I gave a chance an now refuse to watch. I can't believe the CW cancelled many shows with positive images of girls for this gaggle of 'mean girl' bubbleheads.
Guess Who
· 1 year ago
Gossip Girl best show ever? It may be one of the most hyped shows ever, but thats about it. No wonder CW is going down the tubes.
The BEST WEEK EVER is better than Gossip Girl, at least that clip show is somewhat entertaining. Id rather eat my own eyes than watch GG.
Bill Gorman
· 1 year ago
Mandi, I nominate "Gossip Girls however is a mean spirited superficial crapfest" as the best pull quote of the week! ;)
jay turney
· 1 year ago
I could write a book about the new do-me feminist media-journakist complex ( with apologies to Camille Paglia) and sort of am. All I will say here is my latest ( gift subscription) New Yorker has a feature article about the Gossip Girl book series. How many of us knew the TV series was based on some childrens' books which are popular in NYC? The critic pans the TV show, of course, as a blandification or dilution of the books, again, of course, much darker. Maybe this helps explain the media hype for Gossip Girl - like Candace Bushnell, the author has good friends in high places, and the hype is as much about a successful book series, ala Bushnell and JK Rowling, as it is about a TV show on a negligible network.
Sandy
· 1 year ago
So much for your apology (or "apology") to Ostroff and Co. the other day. lol
Robert Seidman
· 1 year ago
haha Sandy. Truth is I'm digesting a lot of Gossip Girl info right now and another at least sort of apology will likely ensue. I just haven't figured out exactly how to write it yet.
David
· 1 year ago
This is really what grates me most about GG. If it's press coverage was appropriate for it's ratings, then it would just be another low rated show with a niche audience that you'd hardly ever hear about, and it would get about as much coverage as something like The Bill Engvall Show.
But you've got a few deluded people in the press who have somehow convinced themselves that the show is successful and popular. It's neither.
Nuanced
· 1 year ago
David, the answer is simple. Josh Schwartz is a very ordinary writer who is a massive manipulator of the press. Big, big bucks have been spent massaging TV critics into hyping GG which I beleive is what Robert Seidman was intimating.
SG GG fan
· 1 year ago
Hi there,
I'm from Singapore and I'm a huge fan of Gossip Girl. In defense of the show, I'd like to share with you some of my findings on social networking websites like Facebook and Friendster.
On Facebook, there are dozens of groups catered to GG and The Hills, and as I'm typing this out, the largest Gossip Girl group has 7181 members while the largest group for The Hills has 1535.
It's a bit harder for Friendster as search results for 'The Hills' tend to include 'One Tree Hill', 'King of the Hill', etc. But I did try 'GossipGirl' and 'TheHills' and it turns out that 61 Americans listed GG under their Favorite TV Shows vis-a-vis 33 for The Hills.
In my country alone, 1281 people wrote Gossip Girl as one of their favorite shows, the highest among the 2007-08 slate of shows, and mind you, no TV station in my country has yet to air it.
Yes I admit that these numbers aren't a hundred percent accurate but you have to agree that it does give you an idea of the size of a show's fan base and popularity.
C
· 1 year ago
I defy anyone to sit down, watch the first five or six episodes, and tell me that Gossip Girl isn't one of the best teen dramas they've ever seen. It's beautifully produced and sharply-written. It's sexy and catty, but it's got a really good heart. The focal point of the show isn't sex, money, or cattiness -- it's the friendship between the two female leads, whose love and loyalty to each other ultimately sets the show apart.
And people *are* watching it and talking about it. Among the demo, it *is* a smash hit. I don't care what your numbers tell you -- the numbers are broken.
Jack
· 1 year ago
*pukes*
Veronica Mars was a superior show in every way possible. And so were the Gilmore Girls.
SG GG fan
· 1 year ago
Totally agree with C. But why stop at the first 5 or 6? I thought episode 14 was the best one so far.
I'm a huge fan of Veronica Mars and I was (and still am) pretty upset that The CW canceled it. I nearly joined the bandwagon of CW haters till they came up with Gossip Girl! Don't you think the character of Gossip Girl is like a homage to Veronica Mars? Now if The CW dares cancel GG prematurely, I'm booking my first class seats to their haters club!
Both shows are different & unique, no one is superior than the other.
BSG fan
· 1 year ago
I agree with C and SG fan I loved Veronica Mars AND Gossip Girl!
All these people hating Gossip Girl HAVE NOT seen even a few episodes GUARANTEED. If they had they would notice how witty and well written this show actually is. Don't let the name turn you off. It's by far my favourite teen drama I have ever seen in my life.
Out of all the shows I watch (Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica, LOST, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Terminator, The Office), Gossip Girl has quickly become the show I look most forward too (I've never been this obsessed with a show ever!) If CW cancels this show, I'm done with CW.
I don't think CW will cancel the show this season. It has bypassed anyshow in the last 5 years in term of buzz and it does really good in the young female demo (Number 9 out of ALL TV SHOWS!) even though its overall ratings aren't great. This is the best written show on the CW right now and has an amazing cast...CW would just be plain stupid to cancel this show.
Without GOssip Girl, I guarantee everyone would forget what the CW even is...
Robert Seidman
· 1 year ago
BSG Fan: I'll go 100% that the CW will NOT cancel Gossip Girl this season. They've already renewed it and nothing happened last Monday to make things any worse,
despite getting CRUSHED by The Hills in the Nielsen ratings GG improved over its own season averages in key demos. I don't know that everyone won't wind up forgetting what the CW is anyway, but it seems VERY committed to GG. I don't expect anything that happens the remainder of this season will change that.
josh
· 1 year ago
I live in the UK and just thought you might like to know that it gets around 300,000 viwers on digital only channel ITV2... thats below the slot average.
Jenny G.
· 1 year ago
I remember a "little show" called Dawson's Creek, and when it first came out had all this buzz, cuz the best friends would literally sleep together, and they talked about masturbation....10 years later I'm 22 and now middle school girls get to watch high schoolers literally FUCK! Oh but this show is buzzing b/c of the fashion, that's commercialism for you! Teen dramas were entertainment, and dialogue starters w/o selling you on being a superficial, egotistical, best-dessed BITCH!!!
All Comments
Basically, tv producers need to find a way to cash in on the cultural phenomenon that GG has become- because it really is one. We want to buy those clothes, we text and blog about it constantly, we download it off illegal websites because it takes way too freaking long to come on iTunes and the CW streaming site sucks. Trust me, people don't talk or care about The Hills nearly this much.
And soholove, thank you for the feedback. I'm still soaking it all in.
Oh, and about the 'Best. Show. Ever.' quote on the cover story of NY magazine... Do these people watch or have ever watched a little thing called TV?
Also-- side note-- I'm in CW's target market and I never missed an episode of Gilmore Girls. Gossip Girls however is a mean spirited superficial crapfest which I gave a chance an now refuse to watch. I can't believe the CW cancelled many shows with positive images of girls for this gaggle of 'mean girl' bubbleheads.
The BEST WEEK EVER is better than Gossip Girl, at least that clip show is somewhat entertaining. Id rather eat my own eyes than watch GG.
But you've got a few deluded people in the press who have somehow convinced themselves that the show is successful and popular. It's neither.
I'm from Singapore and I'm a huge fan of Gossip Girl. In defense of the show, I'd like to share with you some of my findings on social networking websites like Facebook and Friendster.
On Facebook, there are dozens of groups catered to GG and The Hills, and as I'm typing this out, the largest Gossip Girl group has 7181 members while the largest group for The Hills has 1535.
It's a bit harder for Friendster as search results for 'The Hills' tend to include 'One Tree Hill', 'King of the Hill', etc. But I did try 'GossipGirl' and 'TheHills' and it turns out that 61 Americans listed GG under their Favorite TV Shows vis-a-vis 33 for The Hills.
In my country alone, 1281 people wrote Gossip Girl as one of their favorite shows, the highest among the 2007-08 slate of shows, and mind you, no TV station in my country has yet to air it.
Yes I admit that these numbers aren't a hundred percent accurate but you have to agree that it does give you an idea of the size of a show's fan base and popularity.
And people *are* watching it and talking about it. Among the demo, it *is* a smash hit. I don't care what your numbers tell you -- the numbers are broken.
Veronica Mars was a superior show in every way possible. And so were the Gilmore Girls.
I'm a huge fan of Veronica Mars and I was (and still am) pretty upset that The CW canceled it. I nearly joined the bandwagon of CW haters till they came up with Gossip Girl! Don't you think the character of Gossip Girl is like a homage to Veronica Mars? Now if The CW dares cancel GG prematurely, I'm booking my first class seats to their haters club!
Both shows are different & unique, no one is superior than the other.
All these people hating Gossip Girl HAVE NOT seen even a few episodes GUARANTEED. If they had they would notice how witty and well written this show actually is. Don't let the name turn you off. It's by far my favourite teen drama I have ever seen in my life.
Out of all the shows I watch (Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica, LOST, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Terminator, The Office), Gossip Girl has quickly become the show I look most forward too (I've never been this obsessed with a show ever!) If CW cancels this show, I'm done with CW.
I don't think CW will cancel the show this season. It has bypassed anyshow in the last 5 years in term of buzz and it does really good in the young female demo (Number 9 out of ALL TV SHOWS!) even though its overall ratings aren't great. This is the best written show on the CW right now and has an amazing cast...CW would just be plain stupid to cancel this show.
Without GOssip Girl, I guarantee everyone would forget what the CW even is...
despite getting CRUSHED by The Hills in the Nielsen ratings GG improved over its own season averages in key demos. I don't know that everyone won't wind up forgetting what the CW is anyway, but it seems VERY committed to GG. I don't expect anything that happens the remainder of this season will change that.