Though the CW network cancelled The Beautiful Life after just two airings, the series may not be gone for good. The three unaired installments are being released online and, if things go well, new episodes could be produced.
The Beautiful Life follows the turbulent lives of of models in the volatile world of high fashion. The series stars Mischa Barton, Corbin Bleu, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Nico Tortorella, Ashley Madekwe, Elle Macpherson, Sara Paxton, Jaime Murray, Ed Quinn, Gal Gadot, and Billy Magnussen.
Produced by Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst production company, Beautiful Life debuted to poor ratings (even by CW standards) back on September 16th. The second week’s numbers dropped significantly and the show was pulled from the schedule. Production was reportedly shut down in the middle of the seventh episode.
There were recent rumors that the unaired episodes would resurface next summer on CW but they turned out to be unsubstantiated.
In a live video feed on Ustream last night, Kutcher and his staff revealed that episodes of Beautiful Life would be made available on YouTube, starting today.
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In a statement, Kutcher said, “When The Beautiful Life concluded on broadcast television, we were deluged by fans imploring us to bring back TBL. Working with innovative companies like HP and YouTube, we are thrilled to be ending this year by releasing the remaining episodes of The Beautiful Life and taking part in a unique marketing program that could only occur online.”
The first three episodes of the series are currently available and the next two are scheduled to be released on Monday, December 21st. All five installments are being made available without commercials, thanks to a sponsorship deal with Hewlett-Packard.
It was understood that a sixth episode of Beautiful Life had been shot but, based on the current release plans, it seems likely that it was never assembled or completed.
In addition to the episodes, the TBL YouTube channel also features new messages from members of the show’s cast and crew. They encourage people to watch the show and talk about the making “beautiful changes” in 2010, a tie-in to HP’s ad campaign.
Kutcher believes that the show’s high production values will entice people to watch longer-than-usual YouTube fare. His hope is that, if the episodes of Beautiful Life can attract a significant audience, he’ll be able to attract enough sponsor interest to produce new episodes solely for the web.
What do you think? Are you glad that The Beautiful Life episodes are being made available? Do you think there will be enough interest to produce more?
Image courtesy Katalyst.
I think This show Is awesome and CW is Stupid for cancelling it , I also believe this show will be successful so please bring back this show your disappointing a lot of viewers.!
I love this show and everyone I know loves it please make new ones and release it on dvd.
I really fell in love with this show it was awesome and i dont think its right that the cw didnt give the show an opportunity with so ever to gain fans
please make more episodes, its amazing
I’m a huge (Dutch) TBL fan! 🙂
I was honestly shocked when i heard it got cancelled after just 2 episodes!
I was happy to hear TBL would be back on YouTube.
Seen 5 of them now…and REALLY hope more episodes will be made.
*fingers crossed*
Well for one thing the beautiful life is my favorite show now I tell all my friends to watch it and there all into it but why can’t you make them just not put them on the tv network and just put them on youtube? Beacause there doin really good on youtube and I love watching the episode at least finish the 6th episode so everyone can know what hapened beacause that is the worst way people shut down shows if it is at a hangclift so please finish the 6th episode, and get the show back that will be… Read more »
I absolutely LOVE THIS SHOW I’m a guy, so that’s saying something. It has a really good grabbing plot similar to Gossip Girl. The problem with this show, why there weren’t enough views I think was the advertising of it. The advertising of it was too similar to Gossip Girl’s original advertisement so everyone was anticipating another copy-cat version of that. Don’t get me wrong, this show has proven to me that it’s different than gossip girl. The characters are more relatable because of the fact that they weren’t brought up on being rich from the Upper East Side of… Read more »
IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT KEEP IT ON THE AIR OR EVEN ONLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I completely disagree with you, but you are entitled to your own opinion.
I really hope they make lot more episodes. I love this show.It’s real and,hello Ashton Kutcher produced it. Do you need any more reasons?
Will Ashton Kutcher appear in this series or he have only produced it ?!