(Via The Washington Post)
"Okay, so here's what happened. We put the show on TV, it went for two episodes, nobody knew it was on. And so the rating on the TV wasn't happening," Kutcher said in a YouTube intro, in which he's seen sitting in his Katalyst Films office with iJustine, who is known at her bank as Justine Ezarik but who, outside the bank, is immediately recognized as (at least according to Wikipedia) a viral video comedian-actress sensation with her own video-stream channel.
"I was like, listen: If we put this thing on the Web, more than a half-million people will watch it on the Web," continued Kutcher, seated on a really ugly leather couch, dressed as a preppy lumberjack in a plaid flannel shirt, rugby-stripe sweater, jeans and a Nike cap.
"So my feeling is, I want this to be the first show ever that gets more viewers on the Web than what it got on terrestrial television," he says in conclusion. (By comparison, the 2008 series "Quarterlife" had more total viewers online than on terrestrial TV, but only one episode aired on NBC, drawing 3.1 million viewers before being canceled.)
"It's some beautiful programming. Without commercial interruptions," chimes in iJustine, who looks liks a "Blonde Charity Mafia" reject.
"No commercial interruptions," says Kutcher.
"On the Internet," adds iJustine, who seems hellbent on getting in the last word, no matter how inane that word is.
(Via Medispost)
HP will sponsor the five episodes on the YouTube channel for six months. HP's Create Change portal allows consumers to purchase products from HP and choose to have 4% of their purchase go to one of seven charities: American Red Cross, CARE, DonorsChoose.org, Junior Achievement, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and World Wildlife Fund.
HP was not a sponsor of "The Beautiful Life" when it aired on television, Nelson says. "This specific opportunity was appealing to us because it allowed us to innovate and associate our brand in a far more integrated way than buying an ad on TV," he says. "We were involved early in the process and worked collaboratively with [show production company] Katalyst Productions to bring this concept to life."
