apr 23
2008

The Simple Life

It's leaked: Julia's show had been green-lighted by Bravo. Nick's take:

It would be easy to dismiss IT Girls as final proof of a culture gone spongy in the brain, in the final stages not so much of Alzheimers as syphilis. But let's be honest: the concept, three girls are followed by the cameras as they set up an online chat show, a younger version of The View, is positively gripping compared with some of the other reality projects being touted."
But there is an interesting story here that no one's getting to yet, which is how the website and the tv series can/might/should/but-probably-won't interact.

The question of audience crossover is the rub. Some people will interact with Julia's website (a new take on The View) but will hate Bravo's show (a new take on The Hills), and vice versa.

This dichotomy stems partially from the dual life that Julia herself leads -- attempting to persuade the Valley nerds that she's legit while still chit-chatting about Britney on FOX News. Can you imagine trying to look cool to both crowds? Much of the former crowd likes to brag about how they don't own a tv (you'll inevitably see from this post's comments which people these are), while the latter is the entire reason that TMZ is now a successful cable franchise. Demographically, this will be nearly impossible to capture. But perhaps this is one of those rare moments where demographics gets thrown out the window because it catches the zeitgeist.

How? Easy: Whatever you might think about Julia (or, for that matter, Bravo), this should be the place where an interesting experiment happens. This is, if you think about it, like the hyperbolic reality/fiction vision portrayed in NY Mag's Gossip Girl cover story, but times a thousand.

But more than that, this should be where a legit battle between television and the internet is finally staged. Which will be more compelling: the online talkshow or the reality tv series? And when it comes down to choosing the winner, the real question will be: is a draw compelling?

5 comments

(I really just wrote this so I could finally knock Adrian off the front page.)

posted by Rex at 7:44 PM on April 23, 2008

So, anyone know if the show will be streamed online at all? If so, I might watch it. If not, it's going to have to compete for space on my DVR, which it might not win.

posted by Kiyoshi Martinez at 7:47 PM on April 23, 2008

god, christmas comes early

posted by justin at 12:42 AM on April 24, 2008

Christmas indeed. But the problem for the show will be that most people have no idea who Julia Allison is and don't really care b/c they don't really care about the NYC tumblr hegemony. My guess is this disappears with a whisper.

posted by James at 11:10 AM on April 24, 2008

there, the Hills finally gets decent competition..

posted by marrina at 4:09 PM on April 24, 2008




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