MTV Helps NBC Launch 'Quarterlife'

Zap2It.com | February 14, 2008

Bitsie Tulloch of 'Quarterlife'

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MTV will preview series hours before Peacock premiere

"Quarterlife" will premiere on NBC the night of Feb. 26, but if you're near a TV earlier that day, you can catch it on MTV too.

The two networks have entered into a deal to promote the TV premiere of the series, which has been airing online in eight-minute installments for a few months and is making the leap to broadcast television. The two networks are part of different media empires (NBC Universal and Viacom), and "Quarterlife" comes from outside the usual pipeline, making the arrangement a unique experiment in synergy.

The deal works like this: At 4:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 26 (following "TRL"), MTV will air a 22-minute preview of the series, which hails from "My So-Called Life" and "Once and Again" producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick. NBC will also supply promotional spots directing viewers to the hour-long premiere later that night ("Quarterlife" will then move to Sundays starting March 2).

MTV gets the honor of giving TV viewers their first look at the series, while NBC "gets to tap into the powerful target audience that only the MTV brand can deliver," says Tony DiSanto, MTV's head of programming.

"We're thrilled to have NBC's outstanding support and excited about [network co-chairman] Ben Silverman's plans to put 'Quarterlife' in front of as many people as possible," Herskovitz says. "We also couldn't be happier about working with MTV again -- they were the network that resurrected 'My So-Called Life,' for which we will always be grateful."

"Quarterlife" centers on a group of friends in their 20s, one of whom (Bitsie Tulloch) keeps a video blog detailing some of the more personal moments of their lives. It's been airing online since November, and those episodes will be packaged into six one-hour installments on NBC.