Online Nation: Series Cancelled, Hosts Sign Off

Marking the first official cancellation of the season, CW has dropped its half-hour Online Nation after four episodes. The series sought to capture the best of the best from the Internet and present them on TV — from the most bizarre sites to viral videos. An interesting idea but it seems that the series’ intended audience prefer to bypass the middleman and go straight to the content online.

Online Nation debuted on September 23, 2007 and attracted just one million viewers. The numbers fell from there and last Sunday’s episode attracted just 580,000 viewers, making it the least-watched network show of the week. Four of the seven scheduled episodes have aired and it’s unknown if the remaining three were actually produced. If they were, don’t expect CW to post them online. The network has already purged the show from their website.

CW will replace Online Nation with encores of its Monday night sitcom Aliens in America. This replacement isn’t likely to solve the network’s Sunday night woes as the evening has been dragging down CW’s overall ratings numbers. Last Sunday’s combo of CW Now, Online Nation and Life is Wild attracted just a 0.2 rating, landing the network in 27th place for the night. This is even well below VH1’s airing of a repeat of CW’s own America’s Next Top Model. Can the demise of CW Now or Life is Wild be far away?

Internet personalities Stevie Ryan, Rhett McLaughlin and Lincoln “Link” Neal, as well as actress Joy Leslie, hosted Online Nation. In an email, Ryan told us, “I’m bummed about the cancellation, but all good things come to an end. I do want to thank everyone who did tune in and I promise that’s not the last of me, or littleloca” (Ryan’s YouTube character). Appropriately enough, McLaughlin and Neal have posted a quirky video to express their feelings (see below). Stay tuned!