December 17th, 2009 7:31 pm

‘The Beautiful Life’ revived on YouTube

Ashton Kutcher’s abruptly cancelled CW drama will get a new lease on life on the web via YouTube.

Following its cancellation after just two episodes on the air, it seemed as though Ashton Kutcher’s modelling drama ‘The Beautiful Life’ was done and dusted.

Now, three months later, The CW drama will get a new lease on life online, via video sharing website YouTube.

“What we feel like we’re doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first,” said Kutcher. “A show that couldn’t find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web.”

The first three episodes of the New York-based drama are set to be posted online tomorrow, with the remaining two episodes to go live from Monday, December 21.

The 40+ minute episodes will be presented ad-free, thanks to a sponsorship deal with Hewlett-Packard.

Kutcher and YouTube believe that the broadcast quality episodes will help attract viewers to the long-form show, unlike its web competitors — which typically take the form of 5-15 minute segments.

“I would bargain that people will be willing to sit a lot longer if the picture looks a lot better,” said Kutcher.

Should the series attract sizeable audience figures online, Kutcher hopes to secure new sponsors to finance additional episodes of the drama series produced exclusively for the web.

It’s unclear at this stage whether the ‘The Beautiful Life’ episodes will be accessible by Australian YouTube users.

Source: Reuters