What do you do when your production company's drama gets the axe after two episodes? Dump the other three online, of course.
"'The Beautiful Life," the short-lived drama about the exciting world of fashion models starring Mischa Barton from Ashton Kutcher's Katalyst production was the first show of Fall 2009 to get canned.
Now Kutcher has somehow convinced Hewlett-Packard to enter into a cross-promotion as part of the shows five completed episodes finding a new home at YouTube.
"I want this to be the first show ever that gets more viewers on the web than what it got on terrestrial television," Kutcher declared in a YouTube announcement/plea.
A lot of folks doubt that people who ignored the show when it was on the air will be interested in watching it online. But you have to give Ashton credit, his company made a crappy TV show, but he may be able to squeeze a few more pennies out of it.
You occasionally hear TV execs say they don't know what the future holds. The men and women who say this are either morons or liars. In the future every film and TV show will be available online, either from Netflix or Hulu or YouTube or some such thing. The only thing they don't know about the future of TV is how exactly they'll make money off of it. At least Ashton is trying.
